Bride goes viral after allowing wedding guests to vote on couple’s last name

A common question for newly engaged brides is whether she’ll change her last name after she’s married. However, one woman has decided she won’t be making that decision alone.

Danielle Bonadona recently took to TikTok to detail the dilemma that she and her fiancé, Jacob Bartlebaugh, were facing. They both love their individual last names, so her fiancé suggested they hyphenate and each take the other’s last name. Although, she wasn’t entirely convinced about the decision considering how long their new last name would be.

“People are going apes*** over the idea that we could be named the Bonadona-Bartlebaughs,” Bonadona said in a TikTok posted last month. “We decided we’re going to let our wedding guests vote if we should hyphenate our name or not.”

“Because the thing is, we both really love our last names,” the TikToker explained. “Neither of us want to give up our last name, and so yeah, we’re just going to have our guests vote on it.”

In subsequent videos, Bonadona further explained how much she prefers being called by her last name over her first name, Danielle. “It’s less that I don’t want to lose my last name as that I don’t want to lose the ‘Bonadona’ part,” she said.

“I’ve been called ‘Bonadona’ my whole life, and so that’s the name I go by, and so everyone calls me ‘Bona’ or ‘Bonadona,’” she continued. “And so it feels almost like changing my first name in a really weird way, like, I couldn’t imagine not having ‘Bonadona’ officially in my name. But I would be happy to include or add his name, which is Bartlebaugh.”

Instead, the couple decided they’ll ask their wedding guests whether they should keep their own last names, hyphenate their names, or come up with a brand new last name that’s a combination of Bonadona and Bartlebaugh. Speaking to Newsweek, Bonadona explained that her fiancé is personally hoping the guests choose the hyphenated option.

“Jacob is rooting for the hyphenation for sure since it was his idea to begin with," Bonadona told the outlet. “Personally, I also hope people choose Bonadona-Bartlebaugh at this point because I think the internet will be mad if our family and friends let them down.”

Meanwhile on TikTok, many commenters have been pushing for the couple to hyphenate their last names on their wedding day.

“That’s honestly so good. Sounds straight out of a book making fun of rich people,” one person commented.

Another TikTok user praised the hyphenated last name, writing: “That’s actually amazing tho sounds like one of Sherlock Holmes’s villains.”

With so many people now invested in their name journey, Bonadona admitted how shocked she was to see so much support from her TikTok viewers.

“It has brought Jake and I so much joy, and I see it as such a positive omen for our celebration,” she told Newsweek. “There’s a lot of goodwill being sent out into the universe for us, and it’s very touching. I am very grateful to everyone who has engaged with the videos.”