I legally changed my last name back to my maiden name Wanamaker. This was a decision that took two years of careful consideration. My identity for the past nearly ten years was Shelly A. Trigg. Trigg was the surname I adopted from my ex-husband. When I initially changed my last name to Trigg in 2013 after getting married, I only had one publication under my maiden name (Wanamaker) and I was at the beginning of my science career just starting graduate school. I chose to change my name to show allegience to my new family, and to make my husband proud. It was a big deal because I was the end of my bloodline. My only sibling and older brother had passed away 4 years prior. I knew that carrying on my family name would end with me, so I decided to take my husband’s last name.

Unfortunately, my marriage ended in divorce. I had published a number of papers and obtained a PhD all under my new name (Trigg). I had established both my personal and professional identity as Shelly Trigg. I felt very concerned about changing my name after divorce, with fears of discontinuity and spreading confusion that could hurt my career. Knowing all the hassle, time, and expenses associated with a legal name change from my previous experience, I postponed this decision. I continued publishing under Shelly Trigg while becoming more aware of options avaiable for those in need of name changes. I came across these two articles by Dr. Bala Chaudhary:

I also came across this article by three different women ecologists dealing with similar name change issues:

What rang true for me was how Kate Robb described feeling “incredibly conflicted every time I am introduced by my ex-husband’s name, as it no longer reflects who I am, personally or professionally.” I eventually came to the decision that I would reclaim my maiden name and re-establish my personal and professional identity under that name. While re-establishing identity is not an easy road, and I wouldn’t wish this experience or the experience of divorce on anyone, I am thankful for the support and resources that exist around this topic.

Here is how I went about updating my name:

#create a file with each instance of 'shellytrigg' found in all files within github directory
#exclude hidden directories
#save output as 'findmyname2.out'
grep -rnw --exclude-dir='.*' -e 'shellytrigg' > findmyname2.out

#replace shellytrigg with shellywanamaker in all files in github directory excluding hidden directories and files
find . -type f -not -path '*/\.*' -exec sed -i 's/shellytrigg/shellywanamaker/g' {} +

#create another file to check if shellytrigg has been replaced
grep -rnw --exclude-dir='.*' -e 'shellytrigg' > findmyname.out

#the contents of findmyname.out was empty. I ran the same command but substituted shellywanamaker for shellytrigg and many instances came up confirming that the find code above worked.

In the end of the day, being happy with how you see yourself matters most.

Jan 2023 update