Other Meaghan & Erik's

So, for the heck of it, I decided to Google "Meaghan & Erik." Come to find out, there's another couple with our names! The nerve! And they just got married this past year. Here's their website, in case you are feeling slightly e-stalker: http://www.mywedding.com/meaghananderikswedding/. The other thing that came up was a link to this blog via a link to a good friend of mine's blog. It's good to know that there are not that many of us "Meaghan & Erik"s out there.

I think that I feel this way because when you Google my name, you only get me. I like that. There's something unique about that. Maybe that's part of the reason why I am having difficulty giving up my name (in addition to the whole losing my independent identity thing and the feeling like property thing). You see, if you Google Erik's name, you get thousands of hits and websites for an aspiring model/actor, technical consultant, and comic book artist among other things.

So, that led me to think about how many Meaghan Nelson's are out there. I was a tad disappointed at the results—there are a lot! Included in this search, was an eerily similar meeting story for Meaghan Nelson and her husband: There are also LinkedIn and Facebook profiles for Meaghan Nelson's. I had pretty much already decided on what my married name will be, but these Google searches sealed the deal. I've become pretty attached to the idea of being the only one with my name out there on the Internet.

So, my married name will be Meaghan Bayer Nelson. Two last names, no hyphen. Of course, I had to confirm that this was the best course of action: And was pleased to see that it was. Like I said earlier, I had pretty much decided that this would be my married name a few months ago—mostly as a result of getting spam emails from Bridal Expo and the like (see post here). In that post, I said I was pretty attached to my email, but later checked to see if my married name was taken yet—and it wasn't! That was a big step for me with this name-change thing. Next, E's dad renewed E's membership to Sam's Club and added me on it—as his WIFE! After the initial panic wore off (it took about a week), I think it's kind of cool to have something official with my new name on it. Granted, it's not my name yet but I'm beginning to warm up to the idea.

This does not mean I'm warming up to the idea of being the "Mrs." in "Dr. and Mrs" or to being "Mrs. Erik C. Nelson." Warning: If you send me anything with this on it, it will be hard for me to forgive you in the near future. I have my own identity thankyouverymuch. And on that note, I'm out.