Is it Sen. Kelly Marsh or is it Sen. Kelly Marsh Taitano? Or is it Sen. Kelly Marsh "Taitano?" Not even GovGuam seems to know.  

What's in a name? We set on a quest for clarification about one local senator's name.   

During the January legislative inauguration, Judge Katherine Maraman referred to her as, "Dr. Kelly G. Marsh."

Also during the ceremony, she was introduced as "Sen.-elect Kelly G. Marsh Taitano escorted by her husband Tyrone Taitano."

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero also has addressed the senator as "Sen. Kelly Marsh" while Sen. Regine Biscoe Lee addressed her as "Sen. Kelly Marsh Taitano" during a separate hearing.

These are just a few examples of how Marsh is addressed differently. So, we asked the senator to clarify.   

"Through the campaign that was part of my presentation was trying to clear up because sometimes people called me Marsha and they thought 'Taitano' was the last name and 'Marsha' was the first name," Marsh said. "So it's Kelly Marsh is my legal name. I've written for a lot of years academically and otherwise, and so I'm recognized as Kelly Marsh that way. So I've started using it socially, putting 'Taitano' in parentheses or with a hyphen - but legally it is Kelly Marsh."



When Marsh ran for senator, the last name 'Taitano' was prominently displayed on her signs. Now that she is in office, the official legislative website lists her name as Kelly Marsh with "Taitano" in parentheses.

While she is married to Bureau of stats and plans head Tyrone Taitano, Marsh tells KUAM News keeping her maiden name was a priority for her.

"When we filed for our marriage certificate at Public Health, I actually had to write a paragraph to explain why I wanted to keep my last name and they had to review it and approve it," she said. "So I found that interesting - that we're still doing that."

So if Marsh wanted to keep her maiden name when she got married, why did she use "Taitano" when she ran for office? We felt it was a fair question to ask. So, we asked the Marsh if she capitalized on the name she didn't want to use when she got married when she ran for senator.

"If you look up some of my academic writings, I've been using it for years," she said. "Well, like I said I do it socially and then I put it in parentheses or I have it be a hyphen so in that way, I do it that way," she said.



While the senator claims to be using the "Taitano" name "socially" - she's actually using it professionally as a sitting senator in the 35th Guam Legislature. While she admits she's used both "Marsh" and "Taitano" for scholarly writings, a cursory search showed most of her writings used the "Marsh" name. The senator even admits this whole name thing has been a source of friction with her in-laws.

"The family's position - and you're probably not surprised - from the beginning has been for me to legally change my name," she said. "So that may be in the works, maybe especially after this interview and my husband watches this."