If you and your partner marry, choosing to take your partner’s name is obviously not a new custom. it is common knowledge that you will have to go to the dmv, change your credit cards and passport, etc. but we now live in a digital age where your online presence is a big part of your private and professional life, and you have usernames, email addresses and display names to think about now. No matter how tech-savvy you are, this is new territory and you’re probably wondering how to change your name on your gmail account.
There are women who prefer not to take the names of their partners, women who have conflicts and women for whom it is an extremely important facet of an adult couple, and all decisions must be respected.
Over 80% of women reported taking their partners’ last names or creating a hyphenated last name. If this is you, then you could be one of the many newlyweds who want to shout their love from digital rooftops and show off their new identity via social media and email. Considering the new importance of online branding for successful careers, and the fact that women marry later in life and already have an established internet presence under their birth name, the internet actually plays a huge and stressful role. in the decision-making process for some people.
To make it less stressful, we’re breaking down how to change your gmail account to reflect your association should you choose to go the beyonce knowles-carter route.
1. changing your username
so there are two steps you need to take for the gmail switch to happen. the easy step is to change your username, the name that appears next to your real email address. first, log in your gmail account normally. once you’re in, click on settings and then click on accounts and import. scroll down to where it says “send mail as:” and click “edit info“. type in your new married name, hit save, and rest easy because now anyone you ever email will know you’re in that holy matrimony, girl.
2. change your real email address
but what if that’s not the only change you were hoping for, considering your maiden name may be in your real email address? If you want to add your partner’s name or remove your maiden name entirely, there are two different options for you. they are a bit more complex, but totally doable. The only way to complete this step is to first create a new email address, but you can ensure that all messages sent to your single woman inbox also reach your married one.
First, sign up for a new email address that includes your new preferred name. once you’ve done that, go back to your single woman account, go to settings and click forward and pop/imap. select “add a forwarding address“, enter your new email and you’re done.
now for the second option:
gmail has recently added a new feature that allows you to merge two accounts – an update originally intended to combine personal and work emails that can also be conveniently used to combine your past and present online identity. Unlike the forwarding feature, the process takes seven days to take effect. But if you’ve already signed up to spend the rest of your life with someone else, the seven-day wait shouldn’t seem like much.
There are plenty of other tutorials for making these kinds of changes, so make sure you create the online identity that makes you happiest.
images: mariadelajuana/flickr; gmail