When Jennifer Lopez married Ben Affleck last summer, she took her husband’s last name, so she’s now on paper as Jennifer Lynn Affleck. Well, the tradition of changing the last name after marriage is still quite strong – according to recent sociological studies, in the US, only about 20% to 30% of women retain their name after walking down the aisle.

An even stronger tradition remains in Latin America, so the story told by the user u/idontknow72o looks all the more amusing. Yes, our heroine decided to keep her own last name after tying the knot, and this later led to a very awkward and no less amusing story.

The author of the post has been married for five years and she decided not to change her last name before the wedding

Image credits: Min An (not the actual photo)

The main reason for this decision was that the author already has two unusual and nice-sounding last names

Image credits: idontknow72o

Meanwhile, her husband has a very, very common last name

Image credits: Rina Mayer (not the actual photo)

Image credits: idontknow72o

So this story happened at a family gathering when the author’s FIL suddenly asked her loudly why she decided to keep her maiden name

Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)

Image credits: idontknow72o

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)

Image credits: idontknow72o

The woman was overly focused on her tasty food so she just loudly answered that their last name was ‘boring’

So, the Original Poster (OP) says that she has been married for about five years, and before the wedding, she went against tradition, deciding to keep her last name. More precisely, her last names, because in Spanish-speaking countries – and the events unfolded in one of the countries of Latin America  – a person usually has two last names, paternal and maternal, in that order.

It’s not that the author of the post was a rebel against traditions; she just didn’t like that both of her future husband’s names were very common. Later, in the original post, the woman said that the husband’s name is Perez – and this is a very common one (similar to Smith or Johnson in the USA, in the original poster’s own words). And the bride, apparently, was used to her not-so-usual last names, for a reason.

Yes, as the OP admits, one of her names comes from a graceful animal, and the second one is the same as the name of a city, and in combination, they sound quite beautiful. Well, we must pay tribute to the OP’s husband as he did not insist on observing all the traditions (and I personally know many people who would insist…), so our heroine became the only woman in the large Perez family who retained her maiden name.

And so, when one of the cousins of the OP’s husband had his engagement party, the conversation turned to whether the bride-to-be would change her last name as well. At some point, the OP’s father-in-law remembered that his DIL acted contrary to tradition and, over the noise of the party, loudly asked the author why she, in fact, did this.

And then came that awkward moment. The OP admits that she was too busy eating delicious food, so her tongue clearly outpaced her brain, and the woman answered the honest truth no less loudly: “Because yours are boring and mine are prettier!” According to the author, there was a deafening silence, and then one of the younger Perez laughed and admitted that their last name was certainly really boring. The incident has ended, but the OP is sure that it will definitely become an occasion for harmless family jokes towards her in the future…

Image credits: Spencer Davis (not the actual photo)

In fact, the tradition of taking the husband’s last name after marriage faltered badly in the seventies, bounced back in the more conservative eighties, and then settled at the same level of 20-30% that we mentioned earlier. “Women may take their husband’s name legally,” CNN Health quotes Deborah Carr, a professor of sociology and director of the Center for Innovation in Social Science at Boston University, “Sometimes people take their husband’s name legally, but professionally, they may still use their maiden name.”

“In fact, this tradition has its roots in the early Middle Ages, if not earlier, when the family and clan was actually the basis of human survival,” says Valery Bolgan, a historian and editor-in-chief of the Intent news agency, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment on this story. “Accordingly, the change of surname was symbolic – the woman actually passed into another clan, under the protection of her husband’s relatives, and by changing the last name she notified everyone about this event.”

“Now there is no such need anymore, so this is nothing more than a tradition that can be neglected. As for the Spanish-speaking traditions, the situation here is more complicated, because, as far as I know, usually a person receives two last names – the first from the father, and the second from their mother. So, apparently, if the heroine of this story has a child, then their first surname will still be Perez, no matter how ‘boring’ their mom considers it,” Valery concludes.

People in the comments also cracked up at this story, pointing out that the person who laughed first is probably the MVP here, and everyone else just had to deal with reality. At the same time, some commenters say that they also chose not to change their last name after their wedding, although this subsequently did not lead to such a funny story.

And, of course, many folks are just trying to guess which two last names the author of the post still bears, given her clues. The best option, most likely, was “Mrs. Albatross Llanfair-pwllgwyngyll-gogery-chwyrn-drobwll-llan-tysilio-gogo-goch” (by the way, the absolutely real name of a large village in Wales). So what do you think, what other variants of last names might the original poster have?

Commenters almost unanimously cracked up at this tale, at the same time trying to guess what the author’s last names actually were

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