Make it official and cut down on hours of waiting in lines with a visit to I’m a Mrs, a Canadian-based website that’s making it easier to change your last name when you marry.

By Stephanie Wright

As their friends started to get married, Jo-Anne Stayner and Claire Lamont heard increasing complaints about the trouble and time it took to change their names, they were also always at a loss for the perfect shower gift… cut to: I’m A Mrs, their half-year-old company that makes easy the process to change a name once a marriage certificate (or divorce papers) is in hand.

The Wedding Co. reached co-owner Jo-Anne Stayner last week for a quick chat.

The Wedding Co.: Give us a little insight into your company.

Jo-Anne Stayner: We investigated the opportunity when we saw that our friends were struggling with changing their names. The website is always changing, we are constantly adding companies and associations as we stumble upon them. We currently offer two packages, standard and premium, and we’re finding that while most people might start with the standard, they upgrade to the premium when they begin to see how much work it is to go through all their records, from official government documents to financial institutions to retail programs.

All the bride has to do is download the forms, fill out the confidential information such as account details (the general stuff – name, address, contact information is automatically populated), sign them and follow the instructions we’ve provided for each. The process can be different, depending on who you are dealing with.

The hardest part of changing your name is that every government agency, retailer, financial institution has different requirements, deadlines and processes.

TWC: You started this six months ago, what are the most unexpected questions and oddest programs you’ve come across?

JS: We have gotten a lot of questions from men who are entering into a same-sex marriage, it wasn’t something that we anticipated but they are definitely able to use the service as are women who are getting divorced – another question we hadn’t anticipated.

In terms of associations and affiliations, nothing really odd has been suggested by our clients so far, but we have been given some really obscure ones, small business groups and legal associations and the like. We have also noticed that there are a lot of fees associated with changing a name, and in some cases, we suggest our clients hold off on updating their name until their current membership expires. A Canadian passport that’s expiring within a year or so, for example, we suggest should be left unchanged until it expires so as to not incur the fee of updating it when you are going to have to renew it soon anyway.

TWC: What’s the difference between changing your name (first or last) without a marriage license or divorce papers, and can men use the service to change their name to their wife’s name?

JS: A name change that doesn’t involve a woman changing her name to her husband’s or one of a same-sex couple doing the same is considered a legal name change – whether you are hyphenating your names, a man is taking a woman’s name, or you are changing your first name, you have to go through appropriate legal channels, it will also cost you to officially change your name, before you start changing records.

TWC: Have you come across any feminist concerns about the program?

JS: We have encountered many women who do not want to take their husband’s names for a number of reasons. I think people are getting married later now, and women already have established careers and they do not want to lose the name they’ve built their trade, credit and professional identity with. People in general are also facing their digital footprint  – something they’ve been creating and trading on for a long time. A lot of women have been doing a hybrid name change – keeping their maiden name for work related documents while using their married name for personal documents – we’ve noticed women who didn’t want to change their names at first coming to the service once they’ve thought about a family and the names of their children.

TWC: What about your company is different from others like it?

JS: We believe the key is in research, security and a very user friendly interface. We wanted to feel reputable and security is so important, it’s something we’ve spent a lot of money on. We also believe in making the brand stronger and building its authenticity by growing it, we’re hoping to launch in South Africa fairly soon, we’re looking at launching in the US, on a state by state basis and also Great Britain.