(i ripped this off wikipedia real fast so sorry if it's lib)
In October 1776, the Public Universal Friend contracted an epidemic disease and was bedridden and near death with a high fever. Their family summoned a doctor from Attleboro, six miles away, and neighbors kept up a death-watch at night. The fever broke after several days. The Friend later reported that [deadname redacted] had died, receiving revelations from God through two archangels who proclaimed there was "Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone". The Friend further said that [deadname redacted]'s soul had ascended to heaven and the body had been reanimated with a new spirit charged by God with preaching his word, that of the "Publick Universal Friend", describing that name in the words of Isaiah 62:2 as "a new name which the mouth of the Lord hath named".
From that time on, the Friend refused to answer to their deadname, ignoring or chastising those who insisted on using it. When visitors asked if it was the name of the person they were addressing, the Friend simply quoted Luke 23:3 ("thou sayest it"). Identifying as neither male nor female, the Friend asked not to be referred to with gendered pronouns. Followers respected these wishes; they referred only to "the Public Universal Friend" or short forms such as "the Friend" or "P.U.F.", and many avoided gender-specific pronouns even in private diaries. When someone asked if the Friend was male or female, the preacher replied "I am that I am", saying the same thing to a man who criticized the Friend's manner of dress (adding, in the latter case, "there is nothing indecent or improper in my dress or appearance; I am not accountable to mortals").
editorial note: I think this is a very cool story and I really love hearing it. We've been around forever and we've been doing variations of this forever. It's really beautiful
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In a lot of Anglo cultures/communities, which most of you are from so this won't be a surprise, wives take their husbands' last names. In queer couples, they sometimes do it sometimes one takes the other etc. Even in hetero cultures, occasionally the husband takes the wifes' last name (very rare). In Quebec and France and probably a bunch of other Franco places, it's not legal to take your spouses last name lol. Best you can do is double barrel.
I have NO attachment to my last name. It's from my dad, who was and remains an asshole. But I wanna be a good strong feminist and also not buy into this Anglo tradition 😭 At least it's not an actual problem, I am at no risk of getting married anytime soon lol but I would be tempted to take my future spouses last name just to cut off that last bit of my dad.
When I changed my name after transitioning I also switched to my mom's last name because
it's prettieri'm a principled feministI thought about it, but I wasn't all that attached to my mom's name either (she switched to her maiden name after the divorce) and at the time I was more in line with "well fuck my dad anyway I don't want him to define me by negation either." But now I just wanna run away from it lol
You can always make up a new last name and have it be
stalinsteel