Changing Surnames

[bean]

Hi,

One of my ancestors, James Banks, took his Granduncles surname, Davies, to be able to claim his inheritance in the Granduncles will. It had been specified, in the will, that he had to do this by Royal Licence or Act of Parliment within 12 months of the will being proved or forfeit his inheritance. As there was a mansion house involved he did change his surname!!!
However all his children born after that had Banks as a middle name.
The Granduncle was the last male of his line and had no children so i guess it was to ensure that the name continued.
More recently my father had his Banks middle name hyphenated to the Davies surname, Banks-Davies, so we've managed 2 surname changes in 146 years!!

[MrsLizzy]

My 4 x great grandmother Elizabeth Noquet was a daughter of the Noquet silkweaving and dying family of Spitalfields.  When Benjamin Dodge married her, he changed his surname to hers because the French name had greater business "prestige" than his. 

When I married my husband he wanted to change his surname to mine simply because he liked it better, but I wouldn't countenance it because I was afraid his family would be offended and blame me!