Origins of #TeamSchwopkins

Given my penchant for talking...ranting about the last name debate, I would have thought everyone from here to Pluto would know how Schwopkins came to be.

I was coming home from a wonderfully pleasant bachelorette party (and no I wasn't even drunk!) and the topics of names came up. When I gave the tl:dr version of Schwopkins, one of my friends looked surprised and said "Oh, that's where it came from. I didn't know."

So in non-tl:dr format, the origin story.

I actually, once up a time, toyed with the idea of changing my name upon saying I do. My father isn't in my life and hasn't been for a long time. The Schweitzer side of the family was not all that kind to me and my brothers after my parents split up. Etc, etc.

But then I kept trying to say Jillian Hopkins without choking. I didn't know who that person was. I have been published under Schweitzer. My three names flow together very well. There is also the fact that frequently women are told, "Well, it's just trading one man's name for another." I've never heard a man being told, "Well, your surname really isn't yours, it's just your father's." I've accepted that we have a patrilineal naming system but I've made my name my own and to be told I needed to pick one man's name or another makes my damn teeth itch.

Ahem.

Once I graduated, I had decided that I was keeping my name. All things were hunky dory until our first Christmas. Cards were rolling in to the new Mr. & Mrs. Hopkins. I may have growled repeatedly at the mailbox.

And then a dear friend sent a card.

She came up with Schwopkins all on her own.

I texted her my undying love and we started jokingly using Schwopkins whilst in our social circles. And it has since stuck. We use it for our holiday cards and I've been tempted to use it for our future kids, too.

I really really love the idea of a team name. I get the excitement many women have when they get to declare themselves TeamNewLastName. I'm glad I get to have that team feeling, but with a name that is literally both of ours.

Like our marriage, it's a team effort.