More Men Taking Wives' Last Names

[dakania]

March 20, 2007

Comments

[el_j]

Inertia and tradition are amazing things, when they're taken as their own reasons and the outcome of a particular shift, in any case, would result in... nothing! The most significant thing about this brouhaha is how insignificant it is. I would have no problem taking my wife's name, in place of my own, and can't figure out why anyone else should then have a problem with that. What difference does it make?

In fact, I would opt for choosing one name (or the clever mashup of e.g. Van Hallgren) rather than hyphenating. What happens, next generation, when the offspring of two different double-barrelled couples opt to hyphenate their names? Still, we're a clever species, and I'm sure we'll work it out.

[dakania]

I was amazed at some of the comments in the original article at how much this act threatened their perception of masculinity.

[batshua]

In Hispanic culture, everyone has two last names. You have your father's surname and then your mother's surname. When you marry, you drop your mother's surname and replace it with your husband's surname (if I remember correctly). It requires a bit of shuffling and such, but at least in Guatemala it's still the way a lot of people do it. Folks here could do something like that.

[brent_woodfill]

You actually keep both of your last names when you marry but the woman is marked by "de ______" (of ______), with the husband's paternal last name filling in the blank. The kid then takes the paternal last names of both parents.

[thorny_rose]

The two men I know who have hyphenated names did so to let it be known that they're multicultural/interracial children. Gregory Smithe-Yamada. Who'd a thunk?!

[caatinga]

The thought of changing my last name really irritates me. I guess there's nothing revolutionary about being irritated, but I don't plan to ever do it.

[beckyzoole]

My daughter and son-in-law changed their names to a hyphenated last name. She was able to do this easily, but he had to jump through all sorts of hoops. That's just wrong.

[decamerenne]

Officially, I have my husband's surname, but we have chosen our own original surname to use. In Turkey, we can't immediately change our surnames until 3 years pass from our wedding date. We have two more years, and it'll be official.

For important things - bank stuff, bill stuff, ID stuff - we use his name.

helene.