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For many women around the world, taking their husband's surname in marriage has been so deeply entrenched in the culture that the idea of keeping their maiden names doesn't even seem to be an option. But in recent years, particularly with this new era of feminism and gender consciousness, the practice is increasingly being called outdated, and some women are even challenging their country's legislation to obtain the right to keep their own name. Yet still, many women continue the practice and hold strong beliefs about the value of the tradition.
But what's really in a name change? Find out where the tradition began, how it evolved over time, and the pros and cons of both sides of the argument.
British hereditary surnames are about 1,000 years old, the BBC reports. Imported by the French around the Norman Conquest, the legal doctrine of coverture meant that married women had no surname at all since upon marriage a woman became her husband's possession. She simply became “wife of.”
Around the turn of the 15th century, scriptural ideas morphed the imbalanced husband-wife relationship into "a single person, because they are one flesh and one blood," English jurist Henry de Bracton wrote. The married woman went from no surname to sharing a surname with her husband as a symbol of their legal and spiritual unity.
Married women still could not own property or vote. And it stayed that way until the 17th century, when women started protesting the deeply embedded custom. In 1605, English antiquarian William Camden wrote that a woman's desire to retain her own name in marriage was too "ambitious," "pert," and "forward."
Men's glory was supposed to be transferred to posterity through the continuation of a name. So it makes sense that when women started to gain glory and credit of their own—by the middle of the 18th century, as print culture and literacy increased—things started to change.
Women who resented that their names would die with them, like pioneering feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, refused to change their name after marriage. Wollstonecraft simply added "wife of (William) Godwin" to her signature after she married in 1797.
In the 18th century, to use a different surname to one's husband suggested that one was living in sin. Still, a few wealthy English women would go ahead and petition Parliament to pass a private act to continue their maiden names.
The custom of marital surname change had taken on a global life, spreading to Scotland, Ireland, Wales, other parts of Europe, and overseas to British colonies and ex-colonies. Even as legal restrictions of coverture were gradually abolished, its symbol lived on, and even became law in some countries.
Challenging the patriarchal practice met resistance in the late 1800s, but eventually, in 1924, Helena Normanton, the first female barrister in England, became the first to get the British Foreign Office to issue her a passport in her maiden name. With that passport, she traveled to the US to mentor a group of women who were fighting for a similar right.
Progress started with 19th-century suffragists and abolitionists like Lucy Stone, who was inspired by African-American customs to keep her maiden name after her marriage, and who won a battle with legal officials to buy land without her husband's name. Other women in the 1920s also fought many federal court battles involving real estate, passports, bank accounts, and voter registration.
Various US states pushed new laws compelling women to take their husbands' surnames, and one attorney general called a woman wishing to keep her name "sick and confused" and that her need was "not for a change of name but a competent psychiatrist." Only in 1972 could women legally use their maiden names however they wanted.
Coverture in the Western world was abolished and women gained the choice, but many countries still clung to the custom. As more nations legalized same-sex marriage, it became increasingly obvious that the custom depended on an outdated gender-normative and heteronormative idea of marriage.
Japan is one of just a few advanced economies to still stop couples from holding separate surnames after marriage, using a law that the UN has deemed sexist, the BBC reports.
Five plaintiffs launched cases against the Japanese government, arguing that the law on surnames was archaic and violated human rights. But in 2015, the Supreme Court decided all married couples must have the same surname, upholding the 19th-century rule.
Some Japanese women are simply refusing to get married, even if they're engaged. Others are lobbying to change the minds of Japan's parliament.
In February 2021, Japan's newly appointed minister for women's empowerment and gender equality, Tamayo Marukawa, said she was opposed to a legal change allowing women to keep their birth name, though studies show the majority of Japanese society is actually in favor of it, the BBC found.
Linda White, a professor in Japanese Studies in the US, explained that a woman who doesn't want her husband's name "disrupts the whole idea of family." Japan's traditional koseki (family registry) system, based on single-surname households, is what she believes has helped preserve patriarchal control in the country.
It only matters that the family has the same surname, which is why the issue is seen as "more an individual identity and freedom issue" than a feminist one, lawyer Fujiko Sakakibara explained to the BBC.
Changing one's name can impact a person's career negatively, as all their previous achievements and experience can be lost under a different name.
The burden of having to change your name on documents alone is a torturous administrative process that many simply don't want to endure.
Those who decide not to marry in order to keep their own name often face problems in situations such as hospital care where only legally married spouses can make decisions on each other's behalf.
Many women argue that taking their husband's last name signals a submission to the patriarchal structure, teaching children that women are inferior to men from a young age.
Conversely, many feel it's a way to bind the family unit, and the tradition is alive and well in Western countries. A 2016 report showed almost 90% of married British women abandoned their names in marriage, and a large analysis in 2015 noted that around 70% of women in the US took their husband's surname.
One argument is that those whose society's tradition involves taking the husband's name likely inherited their father's last name anyway. Others argue taking their husband's name offers the chance to part from abusive family members.
Many couples cite having children as a reason to change one's surname, as it makes things less complicated on birth certificates. It's interesting to note that though parents worry children might end up confused or unhappy if their parents have different names, sociological research has shown that the nonconformity has little impact on kids, but contributes more to adults' discomfort, The Conversation reports.
Many couples find the significance of a wedding in the name change, citing it as a true commitment to one's vows. Some husbands even make marriage conditional on their wives taking their name.
France has had a law since the 18th century that mandates that women's maiden names must remain on all official paperwork, but which allows wives to use their husband's surnames informally. More recently, France's legislation also allowed men to take their wife's surname for the first time, the BBC reports.
Since 1983, Greece has required women to keep their birth names for life. If you want to change your name, you must petition a court. Since 2008, however, spouses can decide to add the other's last name to their own.
For Greek women, the 1983 law change coincided with a big leap for women, with higher rates of education and more societal involvement, the Guardian reports. Of course, the law wasn't the only cause of the advancements, but it set a new tone for the country.
In Greece, when children are born, parents reportedly get to decide if the child will have the mother's last name, the father's last name, or both.
In Iceland, women keep their maiden names after marriage, but those maiden names are derived from a father's first name, so she and her father have different last names.
Iran has had a similar system to Greece for about a century, and Iranian scholar Narges Bajoghli told the Guardian that one benefit of keeping women connected to their birth family has been valuable if those women find themselves in abusive relationships or other troubles and want to leave their marriages.
In Ethiopia and Eritrea, there is no concept of surnames as known in many Western countries. At birth, people are given one name, followed by their father's name and then grandfather's name, but women retain all three names in marriage, the BBC reports.
In Norway, one of the top countries for gender equality, the majority of married women still take their husband's name, though they usually keep their maiden name as a middle name, which functions as a secondary surname, the BBC reports.
Zoë Saldana and Marco Perego made headlines in 2013 as Marco took the actress' last name in marriage, instead of the other way around. It's unlikely that this will be the future of the custom, but kudos to them!
Sources: (BBC) (The Guardian) (BBC) (The Conversation) (BBC)
See also: Ladies in the lead: countries with more women than men
Should women still take their husband's last name?
The tradition of marital surname changes is divisive among women worldwide
LIFESTYLE Curiosity
For many women around the world, taking their husband's surname in marriage has been so deeply entrenched in the culture that the idea of keeping their maiden names doesn't even seem to be an option. But in recent years, particularly with this new era of feminism and gender consciousness, the practice is increasingly being called outdated, and some women are even challenging their country's legislation to obtain the right to keep their own name. Yet still, many women continue the practice and hold strong beliefs about the value of the tradition.
But what's really in a name change? Find out where the tradition began, how it evolved over time, and the pros and cons of both sides of the argument.