Yvette Standfield, nee Barrett, married in Malta and, being a traditionalist, was keen to adopt her husband’s name when the couple returned to Melbourne.

But it took more than a year of negotiating government red tape before she officially became Mrs Standfield.

“I had an absolute hell of a time,” the 32-year-old marketing manager from Rosanna told The Sunday Age.

Mrs Standfield married Michael Standfield in 2008 in Malta and the couple returned to Melbourne in October 2009. But when Mrs Standfield tried to get a new driver’s licence and Medicare card in her married name, problems arose. Both VicRoads and Medicare wanted a copy of her marriage certificate – but it was written in Maltese.

Advised to apply for a name change at the registry, Mrs Standfield was upset when told she would have to hand over her original birth certificate. In return, she was given a new birth certificate in the name Yvette Standfield. The back of it reads: “Formerly Yvette Barrett”.