It’s complicated!.
I got married at 20 and just started using my maiden name as my middle name. I never went through any official name change procedure and no one ever questioned it. When I got remarried, I just changed last names but the forms asked for a middle and a maiden name so Teresa still showed up in those documents.
As we moved from state to state, I would use my maiden name on my Driver’s License … until we moved to Minnesota. They insisted that Teresa HAD to be on my license but I’d been using my maiden name for 20 years by that time … the compromise was to use both middle names. When we moved back to Florida and I was able to drop the Teresa again. And then we moved to Georgia again. Even though I was able to use my maiden name as my middle name previously in Georgia and the Florida license I was surrendering used my maiden name, Georgia insisted that Teresa had to be on the license so once again I am stuck with 4 names.
Now we’re getting ready to start traveling again. I had to renew my passport so it now shows 4 names. I also had to update the information on the Delta site since the name on my ticket has to match the name on my IDs.
I’ve got a trail “legal documents” over 40 years that do not have Teresa on them but do have my maiden name. Maybe somewhere along the line I should have formally, legally dropped Teresa but at this point it would be too complicated.
What do you do? Use your middle name or your maiden name? Or both?