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My fiance is from a Russian background, and if you are unaware, Russian women take the female version of their husband's last name.

I am not Russian, and I am undecided of whether I will take his (male) version of the last name, or use the female version. Him and his family don't seem too concerned about whatever I choose, however part of me feels compelled to follow the tradition and keep some of his heritage in our family.

At the same time, his heritage will already be in the last name of our family, and we live in North America where this male/female surname difference is not commonplace. Surprisingly, a non-Russian friend of mine happened to ask me out of the blue whether I was taking the female version of his surname! How they even knew that, is beyond me...

Here is an example of the difference (name changed for privacy sake):

Male: Bozadsky

Female: Bozadskaya

What would you do? What do you think I should do? Anyone have a similar surname dilemma? Thank you in advance for your comments and input :)

I should also mention that I've had a long surname my entire life, and the female version is clearly longer than the male version...

Also, I feel like I will always have in the back of my head for the rest of my life that I have a male last name!