Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

last name in medicine


Recommended Posts

i heard somewhere that the name you graduate from med school with is the name you must go by as a physician...i.e. if you get married and change your last name after med school to "mary secondlastname", you would really still be "dr. m. firstlastname".

 

is this accurate? was i talking to a reliable source?

 

im trying to gauge if i should be changing my last name sooner than later just to avoid a huge pain in the ass...

 

thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i heard somewhere that the name you graduate from med school with is the name you must go by as a physician...i.e. if you get married and change your last name after med school to "mary secondlastname", you would really still be "dr. m. firstlastname".

 

is this accurate? was i talking to a reliable source?

 

im trying to gauge if i should be changing my last name sooner than later just to avoid a huge pain in the ass...

 

thanks

 

Nonsense. My doctor changed her name after for instance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some women continue to use their maiden name for their professional (whether its law, medicine, whatever) practice but their married name for everything else.

 

But it's completely a personal choice. Some people just can't be bothered to get a new sign for their door.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
i heard somewhere that the name you graduate from med school with is the name you must go by as a physician...i.e. if you get married and change your last name after med school to "mary secondlastname", you would really still be "dr. m. firstlastname".

 

is this accurate? was i talking to a reliable source?

 

im trying to gauge if i should be changing my last name sooner than later just to avoid a huge pain in the ass...

 

thanks

 

As others have pointed out, it's not a legal issue, but it's your choice when it comes to your "professional name."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

one issue that comes up a lot is publications. If you have a bunch of publications and then you change your name your record of awesomeness is basically lost...

 

yeah, that entire name changing thing always seem odd to me. Just causes problems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't you just hyphenate? I don't see any need to change your last name, unless you hate it for some reason. I'm kind of meh about my last name (pretty rare, and yet there's a serial killer by the same name), but if I keep it, I guarantee that I will never be mixed up with someone else (again, it's about as rare as it gets).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is someone out there with the same last name and first initial as me, who has a publication with someone else that has the same last name and first initial as my grad supervisor (who I've published with).

 

If I hadn't got in this year maybe I would have listed it as my pub for the next year's apps. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...