The dentist’s assistant kept calling me Mrs. Gill. I found it amusing and told her that the only person who gets called that is my mother. She got confused and asked me if that was my name. I said yes but my husband’s last name is (redacted). She mentally could not compute at that point and it was only when the dentist called me Mrs. HisName that she got it.

I deliberately didn’t use the phrase “maiden name” because I think that term is bullshit. It was my name before I got married, now that I’m married it hasn’t changed its status. I was born with that name. It’s not my maiden name.

And by the way I haven’t been a maiden since 1989.