The shock begins when you realize that your personal pronouns are no longer the same. Practically useless are the words: my, mine, me, I; replaced by their plurals: our, ours, us, we, and so forth.

When you take this plunge, folks, your legal identity can (and normally does) change completely. Usually, only the women change names. But guess what, guys? You can do it, too! There is no law that says the wife must give up her identity and take her husband's name. In fact, neither person is required to change his or her name. Or, if he wants to, the husband can change his name.

So, after you've decided who will change whose name and to what, here are some things that you will need to do. Many women are opting to use their maiden name or a hyphenated version of that name plus their husband's last name. Doing so might have some legal ramifications; if you want to know what they are, you better call a lawyer.

But for most people, it's all fairly simple. Here are the major name-change options:

• Keep your own name and change your marital status in all your records.
• Change your last name to your spouse's last name.
• Use your name hyphenated with your spouse's name.

Though the woman is traditonally the one making the above changes, either party could legally change names.