I hyphenated my last name when I got married. I regretted it for 25 years, so I'm finally letting go of the hyphen.

The author (left) hyphenated her last name when she married her husband (right). Courtesy of Susan Teresa I felt pressure to give up my last name when I got married, so I compromised and hyphenated. Rigid institutional policies and strict corporate safeguards make a hyphenated name a liability. Twenty-five years later, I know more about identity, and I'm letting go of the hyphen. As I stood in the clerk's office applying for a marriage license, I faced three options: no name change (keep mi...