Name(s)

When I was in seventh grade, I had an L.L. Bean backpack with my initials monogrammed on the front. At least once a week some kid would yell "hey, your initials are Saturday Night Live!" and I would respond with  feigned shock, because my snarky little self couldn't help it. 

But they were right, my initials are SNL, which in and of itself is pretty sweet. Though I had my doubts about it growing up, I now realize that my full name is uniquely cool, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that when I get married. The name change situation gets mixed up pretty fast in another big decision: children. Here are my current thoughts:

1.) My first name, which has the least significance to me in some ways, is what my students call me. Thus, I won't be changing that. Plus it means princess, which is pretty hard to argue with. 

2.) My middle name is that of my maternal great-grandfather, and is a name that died when his three daughters all changed their names after marriage. It's a source of pride that I get to carry the name on, and someday I will give it to one of my children as their middle name. Until then, I like its uniqueness (though this would be far less of a dilemma if my parents had just named me Sarah Ann or something similarly generic) and don't want it to slip into name oblivion.

3.) My current last name will also die with my generation if myself and my three female cousins (my sister already changed hers) all change our names. Again, not eager to see the name slip away. I had also planned to make my current last name the middle name of another child (we're at 2+ for those who are counting), though my sister just beat me to it with my adorable month old nephew. 

4.) Incorporating Vader's last name into my name is also important to me, so that we have a public symbol of our relationship and so we can share a family name with these future children. Plus, as one of my former students said (with regard to his last name), "It's fresh."

If I want to keep them all, I have 4 names. That definitely won't fit in the little boxes, should I ever have to take a standardized test again. And it will inevitably be shortened to Mrs. Something on mail, so I would need to decide what Something is. And whatever Something becomes, one of the other names would be lost until it is assigned to (future) Vader baby. 

I could hyphenate my current last name and Vader's last name, but then our children would either have hyphenated last names or just Vader's last name. If the kids get hyphenated names, they have to make this decision should they decide to marry and it gets even more complicated. Also, Vader likes this option less. If the kids just get Vader's last name, my current last name will die (on my end) anyway, making the whole thing a little silly. 

AGH! Voilà, my name dilemma. I'm choosing to let it stew until I have to actually make a decision next spring, but welcome any advice in the meantime.

Or, should I just go whole hog and become Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock?