It's weird but in my state (according to the mediator who like a year ago is the one who did the legal separation paperwork) you actually can't do a formal name change without a divorce (or if I do I would have to get AH's permission). She could have been wrong.
I guess to change things like my license I would have to have a legal name change.... It just is one of things (that I did not care about at all) that stuck out in my mind as the difference between legal separation and divorce...
I am torn about the name thing-- my kids will keep his name so I kind of feel like unless I plan to remarry I will just keep my last name the same as theirs for their familiarity... Or maybe I could hyphenate their names to include my maiden name and go back to my maiden name (which I hated)