To name change or not to name change?

...That is the question.

My first, and default, stance on the name-change issue is, "He can change his own name if he wants it so bad." I never saw the point, and usually viewed it as a gross inconvenience perpetrated by a needless and paternalistic/misogynist tradition.

However.

Now that I've seen close friends come down on either side of the name-change issue (some changed their names; some didn't; and in fact there's a third wrinkle, in which her husband's last name got either tacked on at the end or hyphenated onto her own), I have to somewhat revise my previous position. I still think name-changing is dumb; but it does make things so much easier when you have kids. Especially in emergency room situations.

So, because we're hoping to welcome my new stepson into our home by the end of the summer ("hoping" being the key word there, as his mother has suddenly realized that the end of the summer is nigh and that a costly custody battle might not be such a bad idea after all), I will bite the bullet and change my name so that we all have the same last name and I don't have to explain to endless teachers/officials/authority figures that no, really, I AM this kid's stepmother.

The question is, in what form? Do I stick my new husband's name onto the end, giving myself four names? Do I hyphenate? (No, that's pretentious.) Do I just give out my name as first name-previous last name-new last name? Which might be easiest in the long run, but then I will officially have the weirdest name ever. I have sentimental attachment to my own name, I don't want to drop it completely.

For the meantime, I'm not changing it. I don't see any point in filing the paperwork until H comes to live with us/I get pregnant, whichever happens first. But you've all been warned. Start practicing saying it now.