Well everything! Especially if you are planning to get married and move to Italy.  Even more so, if you want to take your husband’s name and then get Italian Citizenship.  In Italy, it is the legal practice to keep your maiden name when you get married. You will have the hardest of times if you try to take your husband’s name and get the documents needed like Italian Social Security Card, Health Care Card, Driver’s License and even your Permission to Stay.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense as to why not to take your husbands last name and to keep that birth last name.  One big fact is the governmental offices will not accept documents when there are two different names on them.  In addition, God forbid if you got a divorce. You would have many issue of turning back all those documents. (That is to say, you got them all in your married name in the first place) If you had used your maiden name to start with, you would just need the papers everything else would stay the same.

It seems that more and more in the USA are starting to keep their birth name and skip that old tradition there of changing to their husbands name in marriage.  So best if you are planning to move and even more if you plan to stay forever in Italy, Do Not Take Your Husband’s Name.