Changing Last Name To Thai Husband's Last Name

[bina]

when we got married we were asked in the bangkok amphur registration if i wanted to or was required to change last names by my country. i said no, so kept my own (ex husband's) last name since i have 3 kids with same last name and school/army etc buerocracy would be hassle.

so on marriage (jot tambiean baan etc) its all with my israeli last name, as are all the certified translations. same same here in israel.

to change here now is not a problem on my israeli ID card/passport/etc etc (health /bank etc). my kids are all able to sign for themselves so there is no problem with having different last names here. american passports /social security card do i have to change there also? (i have to renew anyhow so would like to sort all at same time, its such a trip so if i have to do something with thai consulate as well, prefer all in one day in tel aviv area)

what happens however if we decide to go to thailand? will i have problems if my changed last name doesnt match that of the thai marriage certificates? or do i have to go to thai consulate and do a name change officialized thingy also in thai showing the name change. i always keep paper trails. we have no kids together so no problems there.

really sick of my ex's last name and we have 15 others here from same family /name... admittedly the ex's last name is easily identifiable as israeli/jewish and spelled in english and hebrew its simple. anon's is complicated in hebrew and englsih, and long. but i prefer it for my own reasons. (dont like my 'maiden' name either and sister kept hers as hyphenated for father's sake). i could hyphenate but not enough room on israeli forms for that...

rules may be different for farang women and thai men, take that in to consideration...

bina

israel

[sbk]

My maiden name is on my marriage certificate. Why would your married name be on it? Sorry, if that seems an odd question but I can't imagine why it would be.

You are not registered in any house tabien ban in Thailand? So, the only record they have of you is your marriage. Go ahead change your name, until you get other paperwork in thailand, there is nothing here that needs to be changed.

[bina]

its just that i thought that some where in teh mysteries of the thai paperwork, i was asked if i wanted to use my own last name (not maiden name, the ex's ) or change to anon's last name. why would i be asked that if it was not written somewhere on one of those certificates that we got... (not the fancy decorated one witht hte roses and hearts, but some other of the documents maybe? ... i just dont want to be stuck in some kafkesque nightmare later in life where i cant prove who i am with my own documentations (there was some case like this on here once, no?)

no not listed as far as i know... maybe i just 'think too much' ,

maybe i'll just do it... and deal later with the consequences. lets see if the kibbutz can deal with hubby's last name in hebrew ; fi u think transliteration of thai in to english is filled with letters.....

any body else's take on this before i go and commit to paper? btw, did u change your last name or hyphenate it?

bina

[Boo]

When I got married it mentions my maiden name only. I was never asked if I wanted to take my husbands name & the only relevant paperwork that you will need in Thailand (passport, wedding certificate & translations) list the maiden name & of course the husbands family name, which if you change yours to, will be the same.

IMO having the same name of Anon will save you hassles in the future when you make the move to LOS when it comes to visas etc.

Change it.

[scorecard]

I have no advice whether you should change or not change except to encourage you to do whatever makes you feel comfortable. If you would get solace or you would closer to your Thai husband by having his surname then I encourage you to change.

As a different matter I guess your aware that Thailand doesn't have the same open attitude to family name as you would find in many western countries. There is long tradition and detailed law about family names and there's no point in saying or arguing that it should be as open and 'up-to-you' as you would find in the west.

I am a westerner, many years ago I adopted my 100% Thai son, after he was old enough I asked him if he wanted to change his surname to mine, and he was very keen to do so.

We discovered that we had to make an application, for such a change, to the Thai Interior Ministry and we were told that appproval is not automatic. We had to make a detailed application explaining our family situation, why my son wanted to change his name etc.

We attended an interview, It was obvious to the officer that my son spoke advanced English so the officer said, If you prefer we will discuss in English. The officer was polite and he explained in detail what he was looking for etc. , he spoke mostly to my son. He then submitted a recommendation to allow change.

About one month later we received the approval document, we had to take it to the local amphur offfice and get my son's name changed in the Tabien Bann book and get a new Thai ID card.