Marry in haste, change name at leisure

Women changing their names after marriage or divorce find that technological advance has made the process more time-consuming and troublesome.

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Erin Harris of Chicago told The Washington Times that she is still working on changing her name from Wallace more than six months after her wedding last May.

"For it being a digital age, we're not very digital," Harris said. "For as much as you can do online with banking and paying credit cards, when it comes to changing your name, you can't do any of that online."

For example, changing the name on a Social Security account involves providing at least two pieces of identification to prove age, name and citizenship. A spokesman says they must be hand-delivered or mailed in to avoid identity theft.

Allyson Jaffe, manager of a comedy club in Washington, said she decided to take the easy way out and keep the name she was born with when she married last September. She said that the work involved in changing paperwork made a good excuse to give her grandparents.