What's in a name?

Hard to believe I'll be married in 4 days. Never have I been so happy to get rid of a collection of letters in exchange for others. Learning to write my new name should be interesting.
The part of me that's a feminist wants to rail about changing my last name. Why should I just because it's traditional?? that part of my mind thinks. Are you his property? Is his name better?? Why are you just going along with the flow on this when you fought against every other wedded and married convention just to DO this whole act?
And I sit back, completely at east, and smile. Why? Because I did it once before while trying to go through the whole juggernaut of the wedding industry, holding on to tradition, and I'm stuck with the awful moniker that I have to look at every day.
My new last name will be beautiful and lilting. It'll hint at Europe, take up the beat and phrasing of my first name, and rolls off the tongue in a friendly dual-syllabic song. It announces itself sharply, then trails off in to softness. I'd like to think it's indicative of my life as a whole. It will replace the stentorian mono-syllable bark that is my current last name, and good riddance.
It is with that thought that I tell my inner femininst to sit down and shut up. You see, blindly following a tradition is stupid. Knowing that it's there, knowing that you have the ability to NOT follow it, but are choosing to, completely negates anything negative that might cling to it. I want his name because I love him and it's the single best way I can show I truly want to be one with him.

I could write an entire other post on the funeral I attended last Friday. About family coming together, and seeing things I've never seen before. Also about the nature of assumptions and the refusal to follow the teachings about change in all things. It'll probably never get entered, since so much is going on this week, but I wanted to mention it, in case it triggers my brain at some point. I've made a mistake and I have no idea how to fix it, but it'll have to be done for a lot of people.

I think that's enough for now.