We thought we’d take this moment to share with you all what our new names are, and provide a bit of background into how we made this choice.

Early on in our relationship, we discussed some things that were very important to one or both of us, including our names and what getting married and having a family would mean for that. We knew that we wanted to have our unity as partners represented in our names, without feeling like we’d lost our independent identities. To us, this meant combining our last names to create a new last name that we’d both share. So, cue the creative combinations!

We spent many hours over many months (and a couple of Google docs) imagining and re-imagining what our last name could be. Given the many last names we could pull from (Stayton, Reneberg, Klemetti, and Gray), we had some very interesting options. You’ll be pleased to know we did eventually reject “Stagray” and “Snotrag”... Although the name “St. Gray” - pronounced “Saint Gray” - began as another tongue-in-cheek suggestion, it grew on us and we appreciated that it kept two of our names relatively intact. Stayton would be abbreviated to St. and Gray would remain as-is.

We were excited about our new name! But of course, we learned that this was slightly too far outside the box and that our names would have to be changed in court instead of simply processed with our marriage license. After a months-long process, we’re pleased to announce that we are officially the “St. Grays.”

Please update your address books accordingly!