Married and maiden names
Encyclopedia
A married name is the family name
adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name.
The term "maiden name" is rarely applied to the change of family names by men, or by either sex other than in connection with marriage. Nevertheless, the French and English-adopted term "née" (icon; French:
ˈne), meaning "born as," can be applied to a woman's family name at birth
that has been replaced for any reason. The French masculine inflection corresponding to née is "né"; while less readily recognized by non-French-speakers, it is likewise applied to family names changed for any reason. (The diacritic
s are sometimes omitted.)
The term "birth name" is sometimes used specifically as a gender-neutral (or male only) substitute for "maiden name", but it is also applied to mean the family name of the mother of a child adopted at birth, and is thus likely to be used with more flexibility than the loan-words
née and né, accepting it even when the name being referred to was acquired by adoption (at or long after birth), or made in connection with a change of nationality, or changed in any of the variety of other, rarer circumstances.
Normally, changing one's name requires a legal procedure, as further described in name change
; however in some jurisdictions anyone who either marries or divorces may change his or her name if he or she wishes. Traditionally in the Anglophone
West
, only women do so, but sometimes men as well change their last names upon marriage. In the United States, only seven states allow a man to change his family name after marriage without the formal legal process and associated fees mandated for any name change, which are not required of women.
custom has been criticized for a number of reasons. It can be construed as meaning the woman's father and then husband had control over her, and it means that lines of male descent (patrilineality
) are seen as primary—that a child has no inherited name tying him or her to female ancestors (matrilineality
). Moreover, it means that women have no matrilineal surnames of their own, but only "place-markers" indicating their relationship to men. However, for a further treatment of matrilineal surnames or matrinames, see Matriname
.
In the remainder of this article birth name, family name, surname, married name and maiden name always are patrilineal surnames unless explicitly stated to be matrilineal surnames.
, a woman must use her birth name for official purposes and will use her birth name for most private purposes too.
.
With the exception of Quebec, either spouse, though usually the wife, has the right to change their last name after marriage. Their marriage certificate is considered proof of their new name.
One of Canada's chief values is multiculturalism
. As such it is not uncommon to see names that follow patterns differing from the English and French naming conventions.
and Korea
.
Chinese
women generally do not change their surnames after marriage. While their legal names are left unmodified, it is not uncommon for them to be addressed in a similar fashion to Western custom as 'Mrs.
(husband's family name)'. During the imperial times, some women assumed the husband's surname, which either replaced the woman's maiden name or is simply prefixed to her original name. However, most notable women of those times did not change surnames after marriage, for example, Cai Wenji
(蔡文姬), Wu Zetian
(Empress, 武則天), Yang Yuhuan (楊玉環), Li Qingzhao
(Poet, 李清照).
In addition to this, a more dated practice among poorer females existed, as many did not have personal names and were simply called by their family names suffixed with shi (氏); in this case, the husband's surname is added before the maiden name after marriage. (氏) in older transliterations may be written shee, while the modern official pinyin
is shi, fourth tone. Women with personal names may also have been referred to with the title 氏. Mrs. Li-Wu (i.e. Li née Wu) could be addressed Li Wu Shi (李武氏) without mentioning her personal name. This tradition is no longer commonly practiced in China
, Taiwan
, Hong Kong
, or Macau
.
In Hong Kong, it is common for women to have their husband's surname prefixed to their original name. For example, Chan Fung Fu-chun (陳馮富珍) (aka Margaret Chan
, WHO
Director-General) and Legislative Council member Regina Ip
(Ip Lau Suk Yee, 葉劉淑儀).
(or surname
) after marriage, and this remains common practice in the United Kingdom today as well as in common law
countries and countries where English is spoken, including Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, Ireland, India, Philippines, the English-speaking provinces of Canada, and the United States. This remains the most common practice in the United States. In Massachusetts, for instance, a Harvard
study found approximately 87% of married college educated women take their husbands name down from a peak before 1975 of over 90% but up from about 80% in 1990. The same study found women with a college degree were "two to four times (depending on age) more likely to retain their surname" relative to those without a college degree.
In the lowlands of Scotland in the 16th century, married women kept their maiden names, but today the practice of changing to the husband's family name is the norm.
Usually, the children of these marriages are given their father's surname. Some families have a custom of using the mother's maiden name as a middle name
for one of the children—Franklin Delano Roosevelt received his middle name in this way.
For many, the decision whether to keep or change their birth name is a difficult one. This process is expedited for newly married persons in that their marriage certificate
, in combination with identification
using their married name, is usually accepted as evidence of the change, due to the widespread custom, but the process still requires approaching every contact who uses the old name and asking them to use the new. Unless the statutes where the marriage occurred specify that a name change may occur at marriage (in which case the marriage certificate indicates the new name), the courts have officially recognized that such a change is a result of the common law
right of a person (man, woman, and sometimes child) to change their name. Men, however, encounter more difficulties in changing their last names. There were some early cases which held that under the common law, a woman was required (in the U.S.) to take her husband's name, but newer cases overturned those.
The American suffragist and abolitionist Lucy Stone
(1818–1893), made a national issue of the right to keep one's own surname as part of her efforts for women's rights in the U.S. Women who choose not to use their husbands' surnames have been called "Lucy Stoners" ever since.
Persons retaining their birth name after marriage may encounter difficulties with having people correctly use their name. Many people who know of the marriage will simply assume that the married person has the same surname as his or her spouse and will use that name to introduce and address him or her. Alternatively, people who are aware that a couple has different surnames may not realise that they are married.
Some people retain use of their own surname for particular situations, and use their spouse's surname in others. This is particularly common among people who have a professional career in which advancement depends on work associated with their name, such as an academic
career. These people do not want to risk having their pre-marriage work no longer associated with them and may use their birth name as their surname in professional dealings but use their spouse's surname in social contexts. Many people, celebrities in particular, are so associated with their birth name in the public that they continue to use it professionally even if they have changed it legally.
There are many countries where it is customary for people to keep their own names. In Civil Law
countries people keep their own names for official purposes, but what name they use for social purposes varies.
and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
, who worked for women's suffrage
). Which name is placed first reflects personal preference. For example, if "Hannah Kelly Watson" marries "Michael Errick", she might become "Hannah Kelly Watson-Errick" or "Hannah Kelly Errick-Watson". Sometimes both spouses will adopt the joint surname. A hyphenated name would be ordered (in a phonebook or catalog, for instance) under the first letter of whichever name had been placed first.
In some cases, the combined last name is not hyphenated; however both names are considered to be part of the last name (as opposed to either one being a second middle name). In the above example, she might become "Hannah Kelly Watson Errick", where "Watson Errick" is the last name, and "Kelly" is the only middle name.
's mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's surname was Villar until he married Corina Raigosa, at which time they fused surnames, creating Villaraigosa.
The hyphenated surname has the advantage of enabling the tracing back of both parental lines. However, it requires the next generation, who have the surnames of all four grandparents, to make a decision about the surname(s) for their own children. One solution some couples have used when both parents had hyphenated last names is for the mother to contribute her mother's name and the father his father's to form a new hyphenated last name for themselves and their children. In Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, the children receive the surname of both of their grandfathers in this order: first of their paternal grandfather, second of their maternal grandfather, so that in reality, the surnames do always descend from the men in the family and not from the women.
In the United States, some states or areas have laws that restrict what surname a child may have. For example, Tennessee
allows a child to be given a surname that does not include that of the father only upon "the concurrent submission of a sworn application to that effect signed by both parents."
to his or her birth name. However, in daily life, he or she may choose to use only the first name and new last name. Of women who change their last name at marriage, about 25% informally use their birth surname as a middle name. An example is Hillary Rodham Clinton. Certain cultures don't give a female a middle name at birth, with the assumption that she will marry and take her husband's family name, leaving her birth name as the single middle name.
in American banking since at least the 1980s, on the assumption that this name was not common knowledge. Today a wide variety of security questions are used, not only by banks.
does, however, stipulate that "upon divorcing both spouses lose the right to use each other's name".
A married person who wishes to formally append a spouse's name to his or her birth name may do so through a simple administrative procedure. In recent years, this trend has gained popularity, especially among upper class women and among women who received a university diploma (MD, PhD) under their maiden name. For example, President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife is called Madame Bruni-Sarkozy, in which "Bruni" is her birth name and "Sarkozy" her husband's name. Some husbands append their wife's last name to their birth name, although this remains rare.
In some cases, it has been noted that the children of famous parents and their spouses decide to have a common hyphenated surname. For example, Marie and Pierre Curie's daughter, Irene, and her chemical engineer husband, Frederick Joliot, decided to hyphenate their surnames to Joliot-Curie.
, the name law has been ruled by sexual equality since 1994: a woman may adopt her husband's surname or a man may adopt his wife's surname. One of them—man or woman—may use a name combined from both surnames. The remaining single name is the "family name" (Ehename), which will be the surname of the children. If a man and woman decide to keep and use their birth names after the wedding (no combined name), they have to declare one of those names the "family name". A combined name is not possible as a family name (exception: since 2005 it has been possible to have a double name as family name if a man or woman already had a double name and the partner adopts that name. Double names must be hyphenated in any case. All family members must use that double name). To indicate one's birth name, a person appends it with "geb." (short for "geboren(e)" = "born"), e.g. "Anne Lübke geb. Schlüter".
There is a wide range of selection of a married name. In the past (up to about the 18th century) noble women kept their names at marriage and children received their father's name. (Non-nobles rarely had a last name at all as it became compulsory only under the reign of Joseph II
.) When Hungary was under Habsburg
rule and became influenced by Western European traditions, women became known by their husbands' names, e.g. Szendrey Júlia, marrying Petőfi Sándor, became Petőfi Sándorné (the -né suffix approximately means "wife of", this is the Hungarian equivalent of "Mrs. John Smith"). This was both law and tradition until the 1950s. During the Communist
era of Hungary, great emphasis was put upon the equality of women and men, and, from that time, women could choose to keep their birth names or take that of their husbands in the aforementioned form. Still, most women took their husbands' names; most of the exceptions were artists.
Currently, the alternatives for a woman when she marries are the following (using the example of Szendrey Júlia and Petőfi Sándor – Júlia and Sándor are their given names, respectively):
Since January 1, 2004, there is one more possibility: the hyphenation of names; also, now men can take their wives' surname too, since the law which gave this opportunity only to women was declared sexist and thus unconstitutional. (Men still have fewer alternatives to choose from, though.) Thus Júlia can become either Petőfi-Szendrey Júlia or Szendrey-Petőfi Júlia while Sándor either keeps his own name or hyphenates in either order. Sándor can also become Petőfi-Szendrey Sándor, Szendrey-Petőfi Sándor or Szendrey Sándor, while Júlia either keeps her name or hyphenates, but changing names to each other's names (e.g. Petőfi Sándor and Szendrey Júlia become Szendrey Sándor and Petőfi Júlia) is not allowed.
The law that one can have a maximum of two last names still applies; if one or both of the partners already have a hyphenated name, they have to choose a maximum of two names or keep their birth names.
Both the bride and the bridegroom has to declare before the wedding which name they will use and which surname their children will get (this can be changed up until the birth of their first child). Children can get either parent's surname if that parent kept her or his surname in the marriage, but children born in the same marriage must have the same surname. Since 2004 they can also get a hyphenated name, but only if both parents kept their birth names at least as a part of their new name (e.g. if they kept their own names, or if one or both of them have hyphenated). Currently children usually get their father's surname; hyphenating names is a rising trend.
The marriage of same-sex partners is not allowed in Hungary, so they cannot legally use each other's names, unless going through the formal name change process.
s adhere to the old patronymic system (a child receives a parent's—usually the father's—first name in the genitive with -son or -dóttir appended). An Icelandic woman customarily retains her maiden name upon marrying, because regardless of whom she marries she remains her father's daughter.
a woman takes her husband's given name as a middle name after marriage, and adopts his surname as her new surname. In some parts of south India
, a woman adopts her husband's first name instead of his family name after marriage, while in others, she will keep her birth name for the whole of her life. In Andhra Pradesh
, a woman adopts her husband's surname as her own. In some orthodox families, a new bride might change her full name to one her in-laws prefer.
Several Hindu communities in Kerala
, the most notable being Nairs, are matrilineal, and in these groups the woman keeps her name even after marriage.Furthermore, her children will take her family name, rather than their father's. In Kerala, amongst Muslims(Mopilas), the husband's name and surname are added to the wife's name. In example, if Jameela Khader Elongavan marries Habeeb Syed Pokakilath, she would change her name to Jameela Habeeb Pokakilath. One notable exception is the Tamil Muslim
community where women continue to use their maiden names after marriage, as the concept of surname
is non-existent; this also serves as a precaution against discrimination of converts based on their pre-Islamic caste identities.
Christians generally follow the Western customs. Hindu women normally keep their birth names, but in the new generation, adding the husband's name is also observed. In some communities , the bride's first name is also changed after marriage. In these cases, the family she's married into selects the first name. This practice is quite rare today.
For many of an Indian woman's official documents, the husband's name or father's name has to be mentioned as a legal guardian (e.g. applying for a passport, bank account, etc.). This is irrespective of whether the woman is considered a minor or an adult.
In the state of Meghalaya
, the practice of changing names after marriage is not prevalent at all. Everyone is known by the birth name for life. The birth first name is the name the parents choose for their child and the last name is, by default, the mother's last name.
Only in informal situations, she may add her husband's name to the end of her name linked with the word in, nei/nel (less common) or cg., abbreviation of coniugata, married (very uncommon): for example, if Alessandra Gallestiaga marries Gian Michele Cappoluoghinetto she can then use the form Alessandra Gallestiaga in Cappoluoghinetto or Alessandra Gallestiaga nel Cappoluoghinetto (less common) or even Alessandra Gallestiaga cg. Cappoluoghinetto. In a small number of cases it is possible that the wife can add just the husband's name without the in addition. Only in rare cases is a woman informally referred to with just her husband's surname (Alessandra Cappoluoghinetto). When the husband dies, in the same informal cases in can be replaced by ved., abbreviation of vedova, widow (Alessandra Gallestiaga ved. Cappoluoghinetto, Alessandra Gallestiaga ved. in Cappoluoghinetto, Alessandra Gallestiaga vedova Cappoluoghinetto or Alessandra Gallestiaga vedova in Cappoluoghinetto).
ians do not change their names upon marriage, although the Iranian women may be called 'Mrs. (husband's family name)' in daily life.
, marriage law requires that married couples share a surname because they must belong to the same koseki
(household). Although it is customary for the wife to join her husband's family and thus take his surname, the husband may instead join his wife's family and take her surname. The latter is customary if the wife's family have no son, particularly if her lineage has some significance, in which case the husband is considered an "adopted son-in-law" – he has joined the family in order to continue the lineage; this practice is known as 婿養子 (mukoyōshi
). Eldest sons are more likely to keep their family names than younger sons. Though uncommon, foreign men who marry Japanese women may choose to join their wife's koseki and take her surname. An example of this is Koizumi Yakumo, (born Lafcadio Hearn
), a Greek-born Irishman who took his Japanese wife's name. (Non-Japanese citizens are listed only on a person's koseki to verify marriage. Name changes are not recorded and the foreign citizen is listed as spouse but not as part of the family registration. Foreign citizens have a separate registration system, and cannot establish their own koseki unless they take Japanese citizenship). The foreign citizen is governed by his/her own country's laws.)
In the Japanese language
, it is common to avoid second and third person pronouns and instead refer to persons in conversation by their surname plus a title
such as san, which indicate the relative rank, profession, or gender of the person but not his or her marriage status. Many women who have well-established careers or circles of friends may wish to continue to be referred to by their maiden name after they marry in order to maintain continuity at work or among their acquaintances. However, this is an informal practice not recognized by law, and a wife and husband may not use variant surnames in official settings. (It is possible to establish the maiden name, or another variant name, as a legal alias, which can then be used officially.) Although women's rights groups have attempted to introduce legislation that would allow married couples to maintain individual surnames, a practice which in Japanese is referred to as , such legislation has not yet been enacted.
However, some women either choose or are legally expected to carry their husbands' family name. This is the case in Egypt and the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan), where Islam is not the official state religion or Islamic sharia'a (law) is not the sole basis of the civil law of the country (although Egypt considers Islam as the main source of law). In these cases, women carry their husbands' family name while keeping their original family name as a middle name, so a woman would be known as "[First Name] [Original Family Name] [Husband's Family Name]". Examples of famous women who adopted their husband's family names: Jehan Sadat, wife of former Egypt
ian president Anwar Sadat
, Suzanne Mubarak, wife of former Egypt
ian president Hosni Mubarak
, Asma al-Assad, wife of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad
, and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan.
, persons who have been married or entered into a registered partnership will remain registered under their birth name. They are, however, permitted to use their partner's last name for social purposes or join both names. Upon marriage or registered partnership, one may also indicate how they would like to be addressed through the registration of their choice in the Municipal Basis Administration (Gemeentelijke Basis Administratie) (although their birth name does not change). One may choose to be called by one's own name, one's partner's name, one's own name followed by one's partner's name (hyphenated) or one's partner's name followed by their own name (hyphenated). Both men and women may make this choice upon registering to get married or entering into a registered partnership. Upon the end of the marriage or registered partnership, one person may continue to use their ex-partner's last surname unless the ex-partner disagrees and requests the court to forbid the use of the ex-partner's surname.
Prior to the birth or adoption of a first child, married parents may choose by which surname the child will go (mother's or father's but not both). If no choice is made, the child automatically obtains the father's surname. Any further children will also go by this name. If the parents of the child are not married, the children will automatically obtain their mother's name unless otherwise indicated.
have traditionally followed naming patterns
practiced throughout the Spanish-speaking world; i.e., the practice of having the father's surname followed by the mother's surname; the two being connected by the particle "y", which means "and" (ex. Juan Agbayani y López). However, this practice changed when the Philippines became a United States
colony in the early half of the 20th century. The order was reversed to the conventional American form "Given name - Middle name - Surname", which in this case is actually "Given name - Mother's maiden surname - Father's surname" (i.e. Juan López Agbayani or simply Juan L. Agbayani). The particle "y" was also dropped.
Currently, the middle name is usually, though not always, the mother's maiden name, which is followed by the father's surname. This is the opposite of what is done in Spanish-speaking countries and is similar to the way surnames are done in Portugal
and Brazil
.
When a woman marries, she usually adopts the surname of her husband and uses her father's surname (her maiden surname) as her middle name, dropping her mother's maiden name (her former middle name). When a woman whose full maiden name is María Santos Cojuangco (where her mother's maiden surname is "Santos", and her father's is "Cojuangco") marries a man by the name of Juan López Agbayani, her full name would become María Cojuangco Agbayani. For the sake of brevity, she would be usually known at the very least as María Agbayani; her maiden name is usually not mentioned or it may simply be abbreviated as an initial (i.e. Maria C. Agbayani). In many cases, her maiden name may be mentioned. Consequently, her children will have Cojuangco as a middle name. (ex. their child, Rafael Dominic, will have a full name of Rafael Dominic Cojuangco Agbayani or Rafael Dominic C. Agbayani). Up until the middle of the 20th century, it was common for married Filipino women to insert the particle "de" ("of") in between the maiden surname and husband's surname (as in María Cojuangco de Agbayani or Maria C. de Agbayani), another common Spanish naming custom. However, this practice is no longer common.
Married Filipino women who are professionals may choose to hyphenate their surnames (i.e. María Cojuangco-Agbayani, instead of simply María Agbayani or María C. Agbayani), at least in professional use, and use it socially even if legal documents follow the above naming pattern.
According to the law, upon marrying the couple chooses names for husband, wife and (future) children. Any of those three can be groom's, bride's or double-barrelled
combination of both (tripple-barreled names are not possible). Most often the bride forgoes her name and adopts her husband's.
, Portugal
and Angola
are almost similar to the ones of Spain. The Spanish tradition, usually the father's surname comes first, followed by the mother's surname. A woman may adopt her husband's surname(s), but nevertheless she usually keeps her birth names, or at last the last one. Since 1977, a husband can also adopt his wife's surname. When this happens, usually both spouses change their name after marriage.
The custom of a woman changing her name upon marriage is recent. It spread in the late 19th century in the upper classes, under French influence, and in the 20th century, particularly during the Estado Novo
, it became socially almost obligatory. Nowadays, fewer women adopt, even officially, their husbands' names, and among those who do so officially, it is quite common not to use it either in their professional or informal life.
Until the end of the nineteenth century it was common for women, especially those from a very poor background, not to have a surname and so to be known only by her first name. She would then adopt her husband's full surname after marriage. With the advent of republicanism in Brazil and Portugal, along with the institution of civil registries, all children have surnames so this situation no longer occurs.
For the children, it's optional to bear only the last surnames of the parents. For example, Carlos da Silva Gonçalves and Ana Luísa de Albuquerque Pereira (Gonçalves) (in case she adopted her husband's name after marriage) would have a child named Lucas Pereira Gonçalves. However, the child may have any other combination of the parents' surnames, according to euphony
, social significance or other reasons.
's wife will become Gorbacheva. Sometimes, to ease pronunciation, the root of the husband's name may be slightly modified - e.g. Havel
's wife will become Havlová, or the husband's surname may be shortened before adding the suffix, especially when the surname ends in a vowel, so Čábela's wife will be Čábelová.
The second grammatical way of creating the feminine version of the husband's surname concerns names that are or resemble adjectives and end with "-y" or "-i". In that case the feminine version follows the rules for adjectives and "y" or "i" is replaced with "a" (in Russian "-aya"). So Sklodowskiy's wife will become Sklodovskaya, Ostrovskiy's wife will become Ostrovskaya. There is one further option - some surnames do not change and do not follow any grammatical rules at all, as for example the names in Ukrainian and Polish ending with "-ko", or in Serbian the surnames ending with "-ić". Bondarenko's wife will remain Bondarenko, and Milošević
will remain Milošević. In Czech these are the surnames ending with "-u" or "-í". Martinů's wife will remain Martinů and Kočí's wife will be Kočí.
In fact, in most cases the wife and the husband never have identical surnames, which sometimes creates translation problems into most western languages. While Putin
's wife is Putina, it is normal to refer to the couple as "Mr and Mrs Putin", or "the Putins". On the other hand, the surname makes clear whether the person is a man or a woman. Another case in point is Anna Karenina
. Karenina was her own surname, and her husband's was Karenin. Because the novel is principally about her, her surname has traditionally been used in the translation of the title. Recent editions, however, have rendered it as Anna Karenin.
Usually, female surnames of foreign origin are not modified. One exception is the Slovak Republic, where modification of foreign female surnames is required by language laws. For instance, Nicole Kidman
would become Nicole Kidmanová in Slovak. This practice is also common in the Czech Republic
. More recently, this controversial regulation is being abandoned, as many celebrities with a surname of foreign origin are using it in original form.
In Spain, especially Catalonia
, the paternal and maternal surnames are often combined using y (Spanish
) or i (in Catalan
), see for example the economist Xavier Sala-i-Martin
or Salvador Dalí i Domènech
.
In Spain, a woman does not ever change her legal surnames when she marries. In some Spanish-speaking countries (those in Latin America
), a woman marrying a man may drop her mother's surname and add her husband's surname to her father's surname using the "de" (of) preposition. For example, if "Clara Reyes Alba" were to marry "Alberto Gómez Rodriguez", the wife could use "Clara Reyes de Gómez" as her name (or "Clara Reyes Gómez", or, rarely, "Clara Gómez Reyes". She can be addressed as Sra
. de Gómez corresponding to "Mrs Gómez"). In some countries, this form may be mainly social and not an official name change, i.e., legally, her name would still be her birth name. This custom of adding the husband's surname is slowly fading.
Any children a couple have together take both surnames, so if the couple above had two children named "Andrés" and "Ana", then their names would be "Andrés Gómez Reyes" and "Ana Gómez Reyes". In Spain
, a 1995 reform in the law allows the parents to choose whether the father's or the mother's surname goes first, although this order must be the same for all their children. For instance, the name of the son of the couple in the example above could be settled whether "Andrés Gómez Reyes" or "Andrés Reyes Gómez". Sometimes, for single mothers or when the father would or could not recognize the child, the mother's surname has been used twice: for example, "Ana Reyes Reyes". In Spain, however, children with just one parent receive both surnames of that parent, although the order may also be changed. In 1973 in Chile, the law was changed to avoid stigmatizing illegitimate children with the maternal surname repeated.
It should be noted that some Hispanic people, after leaving their country, drop their maternal surname (even if not formally), so as to better fit into the English-speaking or non-Hispanic society they live or work in. Dropping the paternal surname is not so unusual when it is a very common one. For instance, painter Pablo Ruiz Picasso and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero are known by their maternal surnames as "Picasso" and "Zapatero".
In some churches, such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where the family structure is emphasized, as well as legal marriage, the wife is referred to as "hermana" [sister] plus the surname of her husband. And most records of the church follow that structure as well.
A new trend in the United States for Hispanics is to hyphenate their father's and mother's last names. This is done because American born English-speakers are not aware of the Hispanic custom of using two last names and thus mistake the first last name of the individual for a middle name. In doing so they would, for example, mistakenly refer to Esteban Alvarez Cobos as Esteban A. Cobos. Such confusion can be particularly troublesome in official matters. To avoid such mistakes, Esteban Alvarez Cobos, would become Esteban Alvarez-Cobos, in order to clarify that both are last names.
, women use their husband's last name after "de". There are some province offices where a married woman can use only her birth name, and some others where she has to use the complete name, for legal purposes. The Argentine Civilian Code states both uses are correct, but police offices and passports are issued with the complete name.
When Eva Duarte married Juan Domingo Perón, she could be addressed as Eva Duarte de Perón, but the preferred style was Eva Perón
, or the familiar and affectionate Evita (little Eva).
Combined names come from old traditional families and are considered one last name, but are rare. This is due to the fact that although Argentina is a Spanish
speaking country, it is also composed of other varied European influences
, such as Italian, French, Russian, German, etc.
Children typically use their father's last name only. Some state offices have started to use both last names, in the traditional father then mother order, to reduce the risk of a person being mistaken for others using the same name combinations, e.g. if Eva Duarte and Juan Perón had a child named Juan, he might be misidentified if he were called Juan Perón, but not if he was known as Juan Perón Duarte.
In early 2008, some new legislation is under consideration that will place the mother's last name ahead the father's last name, as it is done in Portuguese-speaking countries and only optionally in Spain, despite Argentina being a Spanish-speaking country.
, marriage has no effect at all on either of the spouses' names, so people keep their birth names for all their life, no matter how many times marital status, theirs or that of their parents, may change. However, in some circles, it is still customary for a wife to use her husband's name as reference, as in "Doña María Inés de Ramirez" (literally Lady Maria Ines (wife of) Ramirez).
Children will always bear the surname of the father followed by that of the mother, but if there is no known father and the mother is single, the Children can bear either both of her mother's surnames or the mother's first surname followed by any of the surnames of the mother's parents or grandparents, or the child may bear the mother's first surname twice in a row.
for women to take their husband's last name. However, since the women's liberation movement
in the 1970s, more women have chosen to keep their original name as had been the custom for centuries. Many women who change their name either take their husband's name as a "middle name" and use their maiden name as their surname, or keep their maiden name as a middle name and use their husband's surname as a new surname. Since a person cannot have two surnames in the official registries, women often register the maiden or the married name as a "middle name", a name not to be considered a given name or a surname. There is a perception that well-educated women with a career do this more often since they may have acquired a good reputation in professional circles by their maiden name before they get married, which would be in difficulty if they changed their name.
The most common Swedish surnames end with "-sson", which means "son of" in English. Until recently, surnames ending with "-sdotter" ("daughter of" in English) were not so common, but recent legislation allows any daughter to take either parent's name and add "-sdotter" as a surname. A daughter of Sven can thus take the name "Svensdotter" meaning "daughter of Sven". The same rules apply to sons, who can take the name "Svensson" meaning "son of Sven", or (very uncommon so far but allowed) their mother's name ending with "-sson", like "Mariasson" if their mother's name is Maria. This is very similar to the system used in Iceland but applied to a greater extent. However, very few people take surnames like this in Sweden. Most people use the traditional structure.
A Thai wife that adopted her husband's surname due to the old law requiring it, can also change back to use her original surname.
, USA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
. Born Antonio Villar, upon marrying wife Corina Raigosa, fused their surnames into the present Villaraigosa. One possible criticism against this practice is that it makes families harder to trace via genealogy, though a counter-argument would be that it makes the mother's genealogical information easier to trace. In many countries a legal record must be filed in order to make this name change, which increases the level of complexity.
is well established in some regions, though still uncommon due to its illegality in most regions
. Trends in the nuptial naming practices associated with same-sex marriage have not yet been observed. LGBT
people may make such decisions on an individual basis. In some civil law jurisdictions like the Netherlands
, Germany
, Spain
, Denmark
, Sweden
, and Norway
, same-sex spouses or registered partners have the same legal options as heterosexual spouses to acquire, or—in the case of the Netherlands—use, the other partner's surname.
—such as most parts of the USA
, Canada
, and the UK
—a name change
usually does not require much legal action, because a person can choose to be known by any name (except with intent to defraud). Married persons who take their spouse's name must get a new driver's license and National Insurance or Social Security card, etc., and inform the company they work for, etc. However, the legal process for a name change due to marriage is, in many jurisdictions, still simpler and faster than for other kinds of name change. In many jurisdictions whose legal systems derive from the civil law
—such as France, Spain, Belgium
, the Canadian province of Quebec
, and the U.S. state of Louisiana
—however, the default position is for a woman's "legal name
" to remain the same throughout life: Citizens there who wish to change their names legally must usually apply to do so via a formal procedure.
In 2007, Michael Buday and Diana Bijon enlisted the American Civil Liberties Union
and filed a discrimination lawsuit against the state of California
. According to ACLU, the obstacles facing a husband who wishes to adopt his wife's last name violate the equal protection clause provided by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. At the time of the lawsuit, only the states of Georgia
, Hawaii
, Iowa
, Massachusetts
, New York
and North Dakota
explicitly allow a man to change his name through marriage with the same ease as a woman. As a result of the lawsuit, a California state lawmaker introduced a bill to put a space on the marriage license for either spouse to change names.
, of the United States
, wrote in 1943 of her efforts to keep her name despite her marriage, as well as other women's experiences with military
service, passport
s, voting
, and business. She and others formed the Lucy Stone League
, named for Lucy Stone
, who had earlier won her fight to keep her name. "We [in the League] . . . made ourselves generally troublesome", with legal cases, mass meetings, signing into hotels openly, and going to Washington, D.C.
prefer to refer to a mother by her maiden name when they are constructing a pedigree, whether in chart form such as a family tree or in some written form. This convention is used because it is a concise way of presenting genealogical information. Thus they would write (or show on a pedigree chart
) a child as e.g. the son of John Smith and Mary Brown.
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name.
The term "maiden name" is rarely applied to the change of family names by men, or by either sex other than in connection with marriage. Nevertheless, the French and English-adopted term "née" (icon; French:
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
ˈne), meaning "born as," can be applied to a woman's family name at birth
Name at birth
The name at birth is the name a child is given by his or her parents, according to a generally universal custom, and legal requirement. What happens subsequently about this name has a substantial cultural component....
that has been replaced for any reason. The French masculine inflection corresponding to née is "né"; while less readily recognized by non-French-speakers, it is likewise applied to family names changed for any reason. (The diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
s are sometimes omitted.)
The term "birth name" is sometimes used specifically as a gender-neutral (or male only) substitute for "maiden name", but it is also applied to mean the family name of the mother of a child adopted at birth, and is thus likely to be used with more flexibility than the loan-words
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
née and né, accepting it even when the name being referred to was acquired by adoption (at or long after birth), or made in connection with a change of nationality, or changed in any of the variety of other, rarer circumstances.
Normally, changing one's name requires a legal procedure, as further described in name change
Name change
Name change generally refers to a legal act allowing a person to adopt a name different than their name at birth, marriage, or adoption. The procedures and ease of a name change depend on the jurisdiction. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose limitations on name changes while civil law...
; however in some jurisdictions anyone who either marries or divorces may change his or her name if he or she wishes. Traditionally in the Anglophone
Anglophone
Anglophone may refer to:*An English language-speaking person, group, or locality*English-speaking world* Anglosphere...
West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, only women do so, but sometimes men as well change their last names upon marriage. In the United States, only seven states allow a man to change his family name after marriage without the formal legal process and associated fees mandated for any name change, which are not required of women.
Customs relating to maiden names in marriages
In various cultures in this article, traditionally a woman inherits her surname or birth name from her father and changes it to match her husband's surname (which he inherited from his father). This name changeName change
Name change generally refers to a legal act allowing a person to adopt a name different than their name at birth, marriage, or adoption. The procedures and ease of a name change depend on the jurisdiction. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose limitations on name changes while civil law...
custom has been criticized for a number of reasons. It can be construed as meaning the woman's father and then husband had control over her, and it means that lines of male descent (patrilineality
Patrilineality
Patrilineality is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well....
) are seen as primary—that a child has no inherited name tying him or her to female ancestors (matrilineality
Matrilineality
Matrilineality is a system in which descent is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors. Matrilineality is also a societal system in which one belongs to one's matriline or mother's lineage, which can involve the inheritance of property and/or titles.A matriline is a line of descent from a...
). Moreover, it means that women have no matrilineal surnames of their own, but only "place-markers" indicating their relationship to men. However, for a further treatment of matrilineal surnames or matrinames, see Matriname
Matriname
Matrilineal surnames, or equivalently matrinames, are inherited or handed down from mother to daughter in matrilineal cultures, and this line of descent or "mother line" is called a matriline...
.
In the remainder of this article birth name, family name, surname, married name and maiden name always are patrilineal surnames unless explicitly stated to be matrilineal surnames.
Belgium
In BelgiumBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, a woman must use her birth name for official purposes and will use her birth name for most private purposes too.
Cambodia
Women retain their maiden name after marriage in CambodiaCambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
.
Canada
In English Canada, names follow much the same convention as they do in the United States and United Kingdom. The first name on the birth certificate is the name the child is expected to go by, although use of a middle name in everyday life is not uncommon. The last name is usually the same as the father's last name though it is not unheard of for children to take their mother's last name, or for both names to be hyphenated. Middle names are optional and are generally only used on official documentation. Multiple middle names are rare but are officially recognized.With the exception of Quebec, either spouse, though usually the wife, has the right to change their last name after marriage. Their marriage certificate is considered proof of their new name.
One of Canada's chief values is multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
. As such it is not uncommon to see names that follow patterns differing from the English and French naming conventions.
Québec
In Québec, however, the custom until 1981 was similar to that in France. Women would traditionally go by their husband's surname in daily life, but their maiden name remained their legal name. Since the passage of a 1981 provincial law, intended to promote gender equality as outlined in the Quebec Charter of Rights, no change may be made to a person's name without the authorization of the registrar of civil status or the authorization of the court. Newlyweds who wish to change their names upon marriage must therefore go through the same procedure as those changing their names for other reasons. The registrar of civil status may authorize a name change if: 1) the name the person generally uses does not correspond to the name on their birth certificate, 2) where the name is of foreign origin or too difficult to pronounce or write in its original form, or 3) where the name invites ridicule or has become infamous. This law does not allow a woman to immediately legally change her name upon marriage, as marriage is not listed among the reasons for a name change. However, she can use her husband's name socially and may eventually apply to change it under the "general use" clause.China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Singapore
Generally, children inherit their father's surnames. For this reason alone, male children were preferred over females in Chinese history. The practice was also observed in IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
.
Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
women generally do not change their surnames after marriage. While their legal names are left unmodified, it is not uncommon for them to be addressed in a similar fashion to Western custom as 'Mrs.
Mrs.
Mrs or Mrs. is a honorific used for women, usually for those who are married and who do not instead use another title, such as Dr, Lady, or Dame. In most Commonwealth countries, a full stop is not used with the title...
(husband's family name)'. During the imperial times, some women assumed the husband's surname, which either replaced the woman's maiden name or is simply prefixed to her original name. However, most notable women of those times did not change surnames after marriage, for example, Cai Wenji
Cai Wenji
Cai Wenji , also known as Cai Yan, was a Han Dynasty poet and composer. She was the daughter of Cai Yong, also a musician. Her style name was originally Zhaoji, but it was changed to Wenji during the Jin Dynasty to avoid a naming conflict with Sima Zhao.She spent part of her life as a prisoner of...
(蔡文姬), Wu Zetian
Wu Zetian
Wu Zetian , personal name Wu Zhao , often referred to as Tian Hou during the Tang Dynasty and Empress Consort Wu in later times, was the only woman in the history of China to assume the title of Empress Regnant...
(Empress, 武則天), Yang Yuhuan (楊玉環), Li Qingzhao
Li Qingzhao
Li Qingzhao was a Chinese writer and poet of the Song Dynasty, regarded by many as the premier female poet in the Chinese language.-Biography:She was born Li Qingzhao (Traditional Chinese: 李清照; Simplified Chinese: 李清照, pinyin: Lǐ Qīngzhào; Wade-Giles: Li Ch'ing-chao, pseudonym Yi'an Jushi (易安居士...
(Poet, 李清照).
In addition to this, a more dated practice among poorer females existed, as many did not have personal names and were simply called by their family names suffixed with shi (氏); in this case, the husband's surname is added before the maiden name after marriage. (氏) in older transliterations may be written shee, while the modern official pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
is shi, fourth tone. Women with personal names may also have been referred to with the title 氏. Mrs. Li-Wu (i.e. Li née Wu) could be addressed Li Wu Shi (李武氏) without mentioning her personal name. This tradition is no longer commonly practiced in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, or Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
.
In Hong Kong, it is common for women to have their husband's surname prefixed to their original name. For example, Chan Fung Fu-chun (陳馮富珍) (aka Margaret Chan
Margaret Chan
Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun, OBE JP is the Director-General of the World Health Organization . Chan was elected by the Executive Board of the WHO on 8 November 2006, and was endorsed in a special meeting of the World Health Assembly on the following day...
, WHO
Who
Who may refer to:* Who , an English-language pronoun* who , a Unix command* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism- Art and entertainment :* Who? , a 1958 novel by Algis Budrys...
Director-General) and Legislative Council member Regina Ip
Regina Ip
Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, GBS JP is a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong , as well as the co-founder and current chairwoman of the New People's Party and Savantas Policy Institute....
(Ip Lau Suk Yee, 葉劉淑儀).
Use husband's family name
Historically, a woman in England would assume her new husband's family nameFamily name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
(or surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
) after marriage, and this remains common practice in the United Kingdom today as well as in common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
countries and countries where English is spoken, including Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, Ireland, India, Philippines, the English-speaking provinces of Canada, and the United States. This remains the most common practice in the United States. In Massachusetts, for instance, a Harvard
Claudia Goldin
Claudia Goldin is an American economist and Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University.Goldin is a director of the Development of the American Economy Program, and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research , located in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
study found approximately 87% of married college educated women take their husbands name down from a peak before 1975 of over 90% but up from about 80% in 1990. The same study found women with a college degree were "two to four times (depending on age) more likely to retain their surname" relative to those without a college degree.
In the lowlands of Scotland in the 16th century, married women kept their maiden names, but today the practice of changing to the husband's family name is the norm.
Usually, the children of these marriages are given their father's surname. Some families have a custom of using the mother's maiden name as a middle name
Middle name
People's names in several cultures include one or more additional names placed between the first given name and the surname. In Canada and the United States all such names are specifically referred to as middle name; in most European countries they would simply be regarded as second, third, etc....
for one of the children—Franklin Delano Roosevelt received his middle name in this way.
Use birth name
Persons who keep their own surname after marriage do so for a number of reasons. Objection to the sexist inequality of the tradition is one major reason; another is that changing surnames may create an offensive or embarrassing name combination; others simply prefer their own surname to that of their spouse's family; and some people dislike undergoing the difficulties and expenses required in a legal name change. It may also be for ethnic pride, to protect copyrights and patents, or a rejection of the idea of being property of the husband. Many people also keep their name for professional reasons, if a successful career was established before marriage.For many, the decision whether to keep or change their birth name is a difficult one. This process is expedited for newly married persons in that their marriage certificate
Marriage certificate
In some jurisdictions a marriage certificate is the official record that two people have undertaken a marriage ceremony. This does include jurisdictions where marriage licenses do not exist...
, in combination with identification
Identity document
An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
using their married name, is usually accepted as evidence of the change, due to the widespread custom, but the process still requires approaching every contact who uses the old name and asking them to use the new. Unless the statutes where the marriage occurred specify that a name change may occur at marriage (in which case the marriage certificate indicates the new name), the courts have officially recognized that such a change is a result of the common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
right of a person (man, woman, and sometimes child) to change their name. Men, however, encounter more difficulties in changing their last names. There were some early cases which held that under the common law, a woman was required (in the U.S.) to take her husband's name, but newer cases overturned those.
The American suffragist and abolitionist Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone was a prominent American abolitionist and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged...
(1818–1893), made a national issue of the right to keep one's own surname as part of her efforts for women's rights in the U.S. Women who choose not to use their husbands' surnames have been called "Lucy Stoners" ever since.
Persons retaining their birth name after marriage may encounter difficulties with having people correctly use their name. Many people who know of the marriage will simply assume that the married person has the same surname as his or her spouse and will use that name to introduce and address him or her. Alternatively, people who are aware that a couple has different surnames may not realise that they are married.
Some people retain use of their own surname for particular situations, and use their spouse's surname in others. This is particularly common among people who have a professional career in which advancement depends on work associated with their name, such as an academic
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
career. These people do not want to risk having their pre-marriage work no longer associated with them and may use their birth name as their surname in professional dealings but use their spouse's surname in social contexts. Many people, celebrities in particular, are so associated with their birth name in the public that they continue to use it professionally even if they have changed it legally.
There are many countries where it is customary for people to keep their own names. In Civil Law
Civil law (legal system)
Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections, as compared to common law systems that gives great precedential weight to common law on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different...
countries people keep their own names for official purposes, but what name they use for social purposes varies.
Join both names
It is not uncommon for women, especially in the U.S. and Canada, to combine their spouse's name with their own birth name. (It is increasingly common for men in those countries to do so; although still a rarity, an example can be found as far back as 1901 with FrederickFrederick Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence
Frederick William Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence PC was a British Labour politician.-Background and education:...
and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence was a Britishwomen's rights activist.Her father was a businessman...
, who worked for women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
). Which name is placed first reflects personal preference. For example, if "Hannah Kelly Watson" marries "Michael Errick", she might become "Hannah Kelly Watson-Errick" or "Hannah Kelly Errick-Watson". Sometimes both spouses will adopt the joint surname. A hyphenated name would be ordered (in a phonebook or catalog, for instance) under the first letter of whichever name had been placed first.
In some cases, the combined last name is not hyphenated; however both names are considered to be part of the last name (as opposed to either one being a second middle name). In the above example, she might become "Hannah Kelly Watson Errick", where "Watson Errick" is the last name, and "Kelly" is the only middle name.
Name blending
Although less common than name joining, a growing trend is the blending of two surnames upon marriage. For example, if "Jane Marie Fordham" marries "John Smith", she might become "Jane Marie Smithford". In virtually all cases of name blending, both spouses will adopt the joint surname, and this name is passed along to their children. By example, Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
's mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's surname was Villar until he married Corina Raigosa, at which time they fused surnames, creating Villaraigosa.
Children
Couples who have different surnames make different choices about their children's surname(s). Various alternatives are used, including:- Most commonly, children are given the surname of one parent, usually the father's.
- Children are given the mother's surname.
- Female children are given the mother's surname, and male children the father's.
- Children are arbitrarily assigned the mother's or father's surname.
- The surname of a neutral third party is assigned to the children.
- Children are given the hyphenated surname consisting of their parents' surnames, in either order.
- Children are given a blended surname, formed from each parent's surname.
- Children can also be given a surname derived from elsewhere in the family tree, such as the maternal or paternal grandmother's maiden name.
The hyphenated surname has the advantage of enabling the tracing back of both parental lines. However, it requires the next generation, who have the surnames of all four grandparents, to make a decision about the surname(s) for their own children. One solution some couples have used when both parents had hyphenated last names is for the mother to contribute her mother's name and the father his father's to form a new hyphenated last name for themselves and their children. In Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries, the children receive the surname of both of their grandfathers in this order: first of their paternal grandfather, second of their maternal grandfather, so that in reality, the surnames do always descend from the men in the family and not from the women.
In the United States, some states or areas have laws that restrict what surname a child may have. For example, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
allows a child to be given a surname that does not include that of the father only upon "the concurrent submission of a sworn application to that effect signed by both parents."
Birth name as middle name
In the United States, a recently married person who changes his or her last name to his or her spouse's last name, often also changes his or her middle nameMiddle name
People's names in several cultures include one or more additional names placed between the first given name and the surname. In Canada and the United States all such names are specifically referred to as middle name; in most European countries they would simply be regarded as second, third, etc....
to his or her birth name. However, in daily life, he or she may choose to use only the first name and new last name. Of women who change their last name at marriage, about 25% informally use their birth surname as a middle name. An example is Hillary Rodham Clinton. Certain cultures don't give a female a middle name at birth, with the assumption that she will marry and take her husband's family name, leaving her birth name as the single middle name.
Use as security question
One's mother's maiden name has been a common security questionSecurity question
A security question is used as an authenticator by banks, cable companies and wireless providers as an extra security layer. They are a form of shared secret....
in American banking since at least the 1980s, on the assumption that this name was not common knowledge. Today a wide variety of security questions are used, not only by banks.
France
Since the 1789 Revolution, the law stipulates that "no one may use another name than that given on his birth certificate"; furthermore, the 1946 revision to the Constitution guarantees that "women and men have equal rights", including in the use of their birth name. Upon getting married, a woman keeps her maiden name (nom de jeune fille). She may, under her maiden name, for example, open a bank account, sign cheques, obtain a passport, etc. However, marriage grants a married person the right to assume his or her spouse's last name. It is still a common practice for a woman to use her husband's name in this way, despite the fact that no official due process formalizes this usage. The majority of married women use their husband's name for all documents, official or not. The article 264 of the French civil codeNapoleonic code
The Napoleonic Code — or Code Napoléon — is the French civil code, established under Napoléon I in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs go to the most qualified...
does, however, stipulate that "upon divorcing both spouses lose the right to use each other's name".
A married person who wishes to formally append a spouse's name to his or her birth name may do so through a simple administrative procedure. In recent years, this trend has gained popularity, especially among upper class women and among women who received a university diploma (MD, PhD) under their maiden name. For example, President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife is called Madame Bruni-Sarkozy, in which "Bruni" is her birth name and "Sarkozy" her husband's name. Some husbands append their wife's last name to their birth name, although this remains rare.
In some cases, it has been noted that the children of famous parents and their spouses decide to have a common hyphenated surname. For example, Marie and Pierre Curie's daughter, Irene, and her chemical engineer husband, Frederick Joliot, decided to hyphenate their surnames to Joliot-Curie.
Germany
In GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the name law has been ruled by sexual equality since 1994: a woman may adopt her husband's surname or a man may adopt his wife's surname. One of them—man or woman—may use a name combined from both surnames. The remaining single name is the "family name" (Ehename), which will be the surname of the children. If a man and woman decide to keep and use their birth names after the wedding (no combined name), they have to declare one of those names the "family name". A combined name is not possible as a family name (exception: since 2005 it has been possible to have a double name as family name if a man or woman already had a double name and the partner adopts that name. Double names must be hyphenated in any case. All family members must use that double name). To indicate one's birth name, a person appends it with "geb." (short for "geboren(e)" = "born"), e.g. "Anne Lübke geb. Schlüter".
Hungary
- From Hungarian names#Married names
There is a wide range of selection of a married name. In the past (up to about the 18th century) noble women kept their names at marriage and children received their father's name. (Non-nobles rarely had a last name at all as it became compulsory only under the reign of Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
.) When Hungary was under Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
rule and became influenced by Western European traditions, women became known by their husbands' names, e.g. Szendrey Júlia, marrying Petőfi Sándor, became Petőfi Sándorné (the -né suffix approximately means "wife of", this is the Hungarian equivalent of "Mrs. John Smith"). This was both law and tradition until the 1950s. During the Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
era of Hungary, great emphasis was put upon the equality of women and men, and, from that time, women could choose to keep their birth names or take that of their husbands in the aforementioned form. Still, most women took their husbands' names; most of the exceptions were artists.
Currently, the alternatives for a woman when she marries are the following (using the example of Szendrey Júlia and Petőfi Sándor – Júlia and Sándor are their given names, respectively):
- Júlia can keep her birth name Szendrey Júlia (now very popular, especially among more educated women)
- Júlia gives up her name, adds the suffix -né to her husband's full name, and will be called Petőfi Sándorné (rare among young brides)
- Júlia adds the suffix -né to her husband's family name, adds her full name and will be called Petőfiné Szendrey Júlia
- Júlia adds the suffix -né to her husband's full name, adds her full name and will be called Petőfi Sándorné Szendrey Júlia (not very popular these days, because it is long to write it down)
- Júlia takes her husband's family name, keeps her given name and will be called Petőfi Júlia (the Western custom – somewhat rare)
Since January 1, 2004, there is one more possibility: the hyphenation of names; also, now men can take their wives' surname too, since the law which gave this opportunity only to women was declared sexist and thus unconstitutional. (Men still have fewer alternatives to choose from, though.) Thus Júlia can become either Petőfi-Szendrey Júlia or Szendrey-Petőfi Júlia while Sándor either keeps his own name or hyphenates in either order. Sándor can also become Petőfi-Szendrey Sándor, Szendrey-Petőfi Sándor or Szendrey Sándor, while Júlia either keeps her name or hyphenates, but changing names to each other's names (e.g. Petőfi Sándor and Szendrey Júlia become Szendrey Sándor and Petőfi Júlia) is not allowed.
The law that one can have a maximum of two last names still applies; if one or both of the partners already have a hyphenated name, they have to choose a maximum of two names or keep their birth names.
Both the bride and the bridegroom has to declare before the wedding which name they will use and which surname their children will get (this can be changed up until the birth of their first child). Children can get either parent's surname if that parent kept her or his surname in the marriage, but children born in the same marriage must have the same surname. Since 2004 they can also get a hyphenated name, but only if both parents kept their birth names at least as a part of their new name (e.g. if they kept their own names, or if one or both of them have hyphenated). Currently children usually get their father's surname; hyphenating names is a rising trend.
The marriage of same-sex partners is not allowed in Hungary, so they cannot legally use each other's names, unless going through the formal name change process.
Iceland
Icelandic nameIcelandic name
Icelandic names differ from most current Western family name systems by being patronymic in that they reflect the immediate father of the child and not the historic family lineage....
s adhere to the old patronymic system (a child receives a parent's—usually the father's—first name in the genitive with -son or -dóttir appended). An Icelandic woman customarily retains her maiden name upon marrying, because regardless of whom she marries she remains her father's daughter.
India
Indian women usually adopt the husband's surname or family-name as their own. In some communities of northern IndiaNorth India
North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...
a woman takes her husband's given name as a middle name after marriage, and adopts his surname as her new surname. In some parts of south India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
, a woman adopts her husband's first name instead of his family name after marriage, while in others, she will keep her birth name for the whole of her life. In Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
, a woman adopts her husband's surname as her own. In some orthodox families, a new bride might change her full name to one her in-laws prefer.
Several Hindu communities in Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, the most notable being Nairs, are matrilineal, and in these groups the woman keeps her name even after marriage.Furthermore, her children will take her family name, rather than their father's. In Kerala, amongst Muslims(Mopilas), the husband's name and surname are added to the wife's name. In example, if Jameela Khader Elongavan marries Habeeb Syed Pokakilath, she would change her name to Jameela Habeeb Pokakilath. One notable exception is the Tamil Muslim
Tamil Muslim
Tamil Muslim refers to those Muslims who have Tamil as their mother tongue. There are around 500,000 in Malaysia which is 2.6% of the total population of Malaysia and 20,000 in Singapore.Tamil Muslims are largely urban traders rather than farmers...
community where women continue to use their maiden names after marriage, as the concept of surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
is non-existent; this also serves as a precaution against discrimination of converts based on their pre-Islamic caste identities.
Christians generally follow the Western customs. Hindu women normally keep their birth names, but in the new generation, adding the husband's name is also observed. In some communities , the bride's first name is also changed after marriage. In these cases, the family she's married into selects the first name. This practice is quite rare today.
For many of an Indian woman's official documents, the husband's name or father's name has to be mentioned as a legal guardian (e.g. applying for a passport, bank account, etc.). This is irrespective of whether the woman is considered a minor or an adult.
In the state of Meghalaya
Meghalaya
Meghalaya is a state in north-eastern India. The word "Meghalaya" literally means the Abode of Clouds in Sanskrit and other Indic languages. Meghalaya is a hilly strip in the eastern part of the country about 300 km long and 100 km wide, with a total area of about 8,700 sq mi . The...
, the practice of changing names after marriage is not prevalent at all. Everyone is known by the birth name for life. The birth first name is the name the parents choose for their child and the last name is, by default, the mother's last name.
Italy
In Italy since 1975 a woman legally keeps her birth name.Only in informal situations, she may add her husband's name to the end of her name linked with the word in, nei/nel (less common) or cg., abbreviation of coniugata, married (very uncommon): for example, if Alessandra Gallestiaga marries Gian Michele Cappoluoghinetto she can then use the form Alessandra Gallestiaga in Cappoluoghinetto or Alessandra Gallestiaga nel Cappoluoghinetto (less common) or even Alessandra Gallestiaga cg. Cappoluoghinetto. In a small number of cases it is possible that the wife can add just the husband's name without the in addition. Only in rare cases is a woman informally referred to with just her husband's surname (Alessandra Cappoluoghinetto). When the husband dies, in the same informal cases in can be replaced by ved., abbreviation of vedova, widow (Alessandra Gallestiaga ved. Cappoluoghinetto, Alessandra Gallestiaga ved. in Cappoluoghinetto, Alessandra Gallestiaga vedova Cappoluoghinetto or Alessandra Gallestiaga vedova in Cappoluoghinetto).
Iran
Most IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ians do not change their names upon marriage, although the Iranian women may be called 'Mrs. (husband's family name)' in daily life.
Japan
In JapanJapan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, marriage law requires that married couples share a surname because they must belong to the same koseki
Koseki
A is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese...
(household). Although it is customary for the wife to join her husband's family and thus take his surname, the husband may instead join his wife's family and take her surname. The latter is customary if the wife's family have no son, particularly if her lineage has some significance, in which case the husband is considered an "adopted son-in-law" – he has joined the family in order to continue the lineage; this practice is known as 婿養子 (mukoyōshi
Mukoyōshi
A is a man who is adopted into a family as a daughter's husband, and who takes the family's surname. This is done to preserve the name and occupation of the family when there is no suitable male heir...
). Eldest sons are more likely to keep their family names than younger sons. Though uncommon, foreign men who marry Japanese women may choose to join their wife's koseki and take her surname. An example of this is Koizumi Yakumo, (born Lafcadio Hearn
Lafcadio Hearn
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn , known also by the Japanese name , was an international writer, known best for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things...
), a Greek-born Irishman who took his Japanese wife's name. (Non-Japanese citizens are listed only on a person's koseki to verify marriage. Name changes are not recorded and the foreign citizen is listed as spouse but not as part of the family registration. Foreign citizens have a separate registration system, and cannot establish their own koseki unless they take Japanese citizenship). The foreign citizen is governed by his/her own country's laws.)
In the Japanese language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, it is common to avoid second and third person pronouns and instead refer to persons in conversation by their surname plus a title
Japanese titles
The Japanese language uses a broad array of honorific suffixes for addressing or referring to people, for example -san, as in Daniel-san. These honorifics are gender-neutral , though some are more used for men or women and can be attached to first names as well as...
such as san, which indicate the relative rank, profession, or gender of the person but not his or her marriage status. Many women who have well-established careers or circles of friends may wish to continue to be referred to by their maiden name after they marry in order to maintain continuity at work or among their acquaintances. However, this is an informal practice not recognized by law, and a wife and husband may not use variant surnames in official settings. (It is possible to establish the maiden name, or another variant name, as a legal alias, which can then be used officially.) Although women's rights groups have attempted to introduce legislation that would allow married couples to maintain individual surnames, a practice which in Japanese is referred to as , such legislation has not yet been enacted.
Korea
Korean women do not change their names upon marriage. By given name alone, a woman cannot be identified as someone's wife. Neither are they addressed in a fashion similar to 'Mrs. (Husband's family name)'. They are usually addressed solely by their family name; however, it is more specifically 'wife of (husband's family name)' or '(child's name)'s mom', when the relation has to be known. Women emigrating to cultures where it is customary to take on their husband's names may choose not to change, especially if they are professionals. However, using the same concept as Chinese and Taiwanese women, they may let themselves be addressed as 'Mrs. (husband's family name)'. Similarly, it is not uncommon for them to be called 'Dr. (her maiden name)'.Arabic-speaking countries
In Muslim Arabic-speaking countries, women keep their full birth and family names and do not change their family names to their husbands'.However, some women either choose or are legally expected to carry their husbands' family name. This is the case in Egypt and the Levant (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan), where Islam is not the official state religion or Islamic sharia'a (law) is not the sole basis of the civil law of the country (although Egypt considers Islam as the main source of law). In these cases, women carry their husbands' family name while keeping their original family name as a middle name, so a woman would be known as "[First Name] [Original Family Name] [Husband's Family Name]". Examples of famous women who adopted their husband's family names: Jehan Sadat, wife of former Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian president Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
, Suzanne Mubarak, wife of former Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian president Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
, Asma al-Assad, wife of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad
Bashar al-Assad is the President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party. His father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for 29 years until his death in 2000. Al-Assad was elected in 2000, re-elected in 2007, unopposed each time.- Early Life :...
, and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan.
Malaysia
It is traditional that Malay women keep their maiden name. As of the 1951 处女 Act, men can take the surname of their wives. Once the man is committed to his wife's surname it is considered inadequate to divorce her.Netherlands
In the NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, persons who have been married or entered into a registered partnership will remain registered under their birth name. They are, however, permitted to use their partner's last name for social purposes or join both names. Upon marriage or registered partnership, one may also indicate how they would like to be addressed through the registration of their choice in the Municipal Basis Administration (Gemeentelijke Basis Administratie) (although their birth name does not change). One may choose to be called by one's own name, one's partner's name, one's own name followed by one's partner's name (hyphenated) or one's partner's name followed by their own name (hyphenated). Both men and women may make this choice upon registering to get married or entering into a registered partnership. Upon the end of the marriage or registered partnership, one person may continue to use their ex-partner's last surname unless the ex-partner disagrees and requests the court to forbid the use of the ex-partner's surname.
Prior to the birth or adoption of a first child, married parents may choose by which surname the child will go (mother's or father's but not both). If no choice is made, the child automatically obtains the father's surname. Any further children will also go by this name. If the parents of the child are not married, the children will automatically obtain their mother's name unless otherwise indicated.
Philippines
Christians (as well as certain Muslims, Chinese Filipinos, and others) in the PhilippinesPhilippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
have traditionally followed naming patterns
Iberian naming customs
Spanish naming customs denotes the personal appellation practiced in Spain, consisting of a given name followed by two family names . The first surname was traditionally the father's first surname, and the second the mother's first surname...
practiced throughout the Spanish-speaking world; i.e., the practice of having the father's surname followed by the mother's surname; the two being connected by the particle "y", which means "and" (ex. Juan Agbayani y López). However, this practice changed when the Philippines became a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
colony in the early half of the 20th century. The order was reversed to the conventional American form "Given name - Middle name - Surname", which in this case is actually "Given name - Mother's maiden surname - Father's surname" (i.e. Juan López Agbayani or simply Juan L. Agbayani). The particle "y" was also dropped.
Currently, the middle name is usually, though not always, the mother's maiden name, which is followed by the father's surname. This is the opposite of what is done in Spanish-speaking countries and is similar to the way surnames are done in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
.
When a woman marries, she usually adopts the surname of her husband and uses her father's surname (her maiden surname) as her middle name, dropping her mother's maiden name (her former middle name). When a woman whose full maiden name is María Santos Cojuangco (where her mother's maiden surname is "Santos", and her father's is "Cojuangco") marries a man by the name of Juan López Agbayani, her full name would become María Cojuangco Agbayani. For the sake of brevity, she would be usually known at the very least as María Agbayani; her maiden name is usually not mentioned or it may simply be abbreviated as an initial (i.e. Maria C. Agbayani). In many cases, her maiden name may be mentioned. Consequently, her children will have Cojuangco as a middle name. (ex. their child, Rafael Dominic, will have a full name of Rafael Dominic Cojuangco Agbayani or Rafael Dominic C. Agbayani). Up until the middle of the 20th century, it was common for married Filipino women to insert the particle "de" ("of") in between the maiden surname and husband's surname (as in María Cojuangco de Agbayani or Maria C. de Agbayani), another common Spanish naming custom. However, this practice is no longer common.
Married Filipino women who are professionals may choose to hyphenate their surnames (i.e. María Cojuangco-Agbayani, instead of simply María Agbayani or María C. Agbayani), at least in professional use, and use it socially even if legal documents follow the above naming pattern.
Poland
In contemporary Polish only names that are valid adjectives (e.g. Silny - Strong, Śliski - Slippery) or sound like an adjective (e.g. Skłodowski, Mącki) have feminine versions, according to behavior of real adjectives. If a masculine surname ends in -i or -y, its feminine equivalent ends in -a. Therefore women would be identified as Silna, Śliska, Skłodowska, Mącka, in examples above. This is the default and most often used approach, however woman can elect to use masculine version. The -owa (spelled -ova) suffix for other types of names is not used in official language but remains recognized and sometimes appears in informal or humorous context. Originally it was reserved to married name. Historically -ówna suffix was used to denote maiden name.According to the law, upon marrying the couple chooses names for husband, wife and (future) children. Any of those three can be groom's, bride's or double-barrelled
Double-barrelled name
In English speaking and some other Western countries, a double-barrelled name is a family name with two parts, which may or may not be joined with a hyphen and is also known as a hyphenated name. An example of a hyphenated double-barrelled surname is Bowes-Lyon; an example of an unhyphenated...
combination of both (tripple-barreled names are not possible). Most often the bride forgoes her name and adopts her husband's.
Portuguese-speaking world
In general, the traditions followed in countries like BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
are almost similar to the ones of Spain. The Spanish tradition, usually the father's surname comes first, followed by the mother's surname. A woman may adopt her husband's surname(s), but nevertheless she usually keeps her birth names, or at last the last one. Since 1977, a husband can also adopt his wife's surname. When this happens, usually both spouses change their name after marriage.
The custom of a woman changing her name upon marriage is recent. It spread in the late 19th century in the upper classes, under French influence, and in the 20th century, particularly during the Estado Novo
Estado Novo
There have been two regimes known as Estado Novo :*Estado Novo , the period from 1937 to 1945, under the leadership of Getúlio Vargas...
, it became socially almost obligatory. Nowadays, fewer women adopt, even officially, their husbands' names, and among those who do so officially, it is quite common not to use it either in their professional or informal life.
Until the end of the nineteenth century it was common for women, especially those from a very poor background, not to have a surname and so to be known only by her first name. She would then adopt her husband's full surname after marriage. With the advent of republicanism in Brazil and Portugal, along with the institution of civil registries, all children have surnames so this situation no longer occurs.
For the children, it's optional to bear only the last surnames of the parents. For example, Carlos da Silva Gonçalves and Ana Luísa de Albuquerque Pereira (Gonçalves) (in case she adopted her husband's name after marriage) would have a child named Lucas Pereira Gonçalves. However, the child may have any other combination of the parents' surnames, according to euphony
Euphony
Phonaesthetics is the claim or study of inherent pleasantness or beauty or unpleasantness of the sound of certain words and sentences. Poetry is considered euphonic, as is well-crafted literary prose...
, social significance or other reasons.
Russia and some Slavic countries
During the wedding, the young couple has to declare what surname they are going to use. Both have the option to keep their original surnames or to adopt the other one's surname. Most often the bride adopts her husband's surname in its feminine version. In most Slavic languages there are two ways to create the feminine surname version. First and most prevalent is by adding "-ova" (for example: Kumkov → Kumkova, Ivanov → Ivanova, Lashkonov → Lashkonova), "-eva" (for example: Dostonev → Dostoneva, Nikolaev → Nikolaeva, Porokastev → Porokasteva), "-ina" (for example: Galkin → Galkina, Sartejin → Sartejina, Ardirsin → Ardirsina) or "-aya" (for example: Stronsky → Stronskaya, Merdonsky → Merdonskaya, Putanesky → Putaneskaya) to the masculine form (in Russian surnames ending with "-ov", only "-a" is added). Navratilov's wife will be called Navratilova, GorbachevMikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
's wife will become Gorbacheva. Sometimes, to ease pronunciation, the root of the husband's name may be slightly modified - e.g. Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
's wife will become Havlová, or the husband's surname may be shortened before adding the suffix, especially when the surname ends in a vowel, so Čábela's wife will be Čábelová.
The second grammatical way of creating the feminine version of the husband's surname concerns names that are or resemble adjectives and end with "-y" or "-i". In that case the feminine version follows the rules for adjectives and "y" or "i" is replaced with "a" (in Russian "-aya"). So Sklodowskiy's wife will become Sklodovskaya, Ostrovskiy's wife will become Ostrovskaya. There is one further option - some surnames do not change and do not follow any grammatical rules at all, as for example the names in Ukrainian and Polish ending with "-ko", or in Serbian the surnames ending with "-ić". Bondarenko's wife will remain Bondarenko, and Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
will remain Milošević. In Czech these are the surnames ending with "-u" or "-í". Martinů's wife will remain Martinů and Kočí's wife will be Kočí.
In fact, in most cases the wife and the husband never have identical surnames, which sometimes creates translation problems into most western languages. While Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
's wife is Putina, it is normal to refer to the couple as "Mr and Mrs Putin", or "the Putins". On the other hand, the surname makes clear whether the person is a man or a woman. Another case in point is Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger...
. Karenina was her own surname, and her husband's was Karenin. Because the novel is principally about her, her surname has traditionally been used in the translation of the title. Recent editions, however, have rendered it as Anna Karenin.
Usually, female surnames of foreign origin are not modified. One exception is the Slovak Republic, where modification of foreign female surnames is required by language laws. For instance, Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
would become Nicole Kidmanová in Slovak. This practice is also common in the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. More recently, this controversial regulation is being abandoned, as many celebrities with a surname of foreign origin are using it in original form.
Spanish-speaking world
In Spain and in most Spanish-speaking countries, the practice is for people to have two surnames. Usually he first surname comes from the father and the second from the mother but it caould be the other way round. A child's first surname will usually be their father's first surname whilst the child's second surname will usually be the mother's first surname. For example, if Señor Smith Adams and Señora Jones Roberts had a child named Paul, then his full name would be Paul Smith Jones. One family member's relationship to another's can often be identified by the various combinations and permutations of surnames.In Spain, especially Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, the paternal and maternal surnames are often combined using y (Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
) or i (in Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
), see for example the economist Xavier Sala-i-Martin
Xavier Sala-i-Martin
Xavier Sala-i-Martin is a professor of economics at Columbia University.Sala-i-Martin earned his degree from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1985 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1990, both in economics...
or Salvador Dalí i Domènech
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
.
In Spain, a woman does not ever change her legal surnames when she marries. In some Spanish-speaking countries (those in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
), a woman marrying a man may drop her mother's surname and add her husband's surname to her father's surname using the "de" (of) preposition. For example, if "Clara Reyes Alba" were to marry "Alberto Gómez Rodriguez", the wife could use "Clara Reyes de Gómez" as her name (or "Clara Reyes Gómez", or, rarely, "Clara Gómez Reyes". She can be addressed as Sra
SRA
-Companies:* Science Research Associates, a U.S. publisher of educational materials* SRA International, a consulting and systems integration firm* Strategic Rail Authority, a public company involved in the British railway system...
. de Gómez corresponding to "Mrs Gómez"). In some countries, this form may be mainly social and not an official name change, i.e., legally, her name would still be her birth name. This custom of adding the husband's surname is slowly fading.
Any children a couple have together take both surnames, so if the couple above had two children named "Andrés" and "Ana", then their names would be "Andrés Gómez Reyes" and "Ana Gómez Reyes". In Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, a 1995 reform in the law allows the parents to choose whether the father's or the mother's surname goes first, although this order must be the same for all their children. For instance, the name of the son of the couple in the example above could be settled whether "Andrés Gómez Reyes" or "Andrés Reyes Gómez". Sometimes, for single mothers or when the father would or could not recognize the child, the mother's surname has been used twice: for example, "Ana Reyes Reyes". In Spain, however, children with just one parent receive both surnames of that parent, although the order may also be changed. In 1973 in Chile, the law was changed to avoid stigmatizing illegitimate children with the maternal surname repeated.
It should be noted that some Hispanic people, after leaving their country, drop their maternal surname (even if not formally), so as to better fit into the English-speaking or non-Hispanic society they live or work in. Dropping the paternal surname is not so unusual when it is a very common one. For instance, painter Pablo Ruiz Picasso and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero are known by their maternal surnames as "Picasso" and "Zapatero".
In some churches, such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where the family structure is emphasized, as well as legal marriage, the wife is referred to as "hermana" [sister] plus the surname of her husband. And most records of the church follow that structure as well.
A new trend in the United States for Hispanics is to hyphenate their father's and mother's last names. This is done because American born English-speakers are not aware of the Hispanic custom of using two last names and thus mistake the first last name of the individual for a middle name. In doing so they would, for example, mistakenly refer to Esteban Alvarez Cobos as Esteban A. Cobos. Such confusion can be particularly troublesome in official matters. To avoid such mistakes, Esteban Alvarez Cobos, would become Esteban Alvarez-Cobos, in order to clarify that both are last names.
Argentina
In ArgentinaArgentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, women use their husband's last name after "de". There are some province offices where a married woman can use only her birth name, and some others where she has to use the complete name, for legal purposes. The Argentine Civilian Code states both uses are correct, but police offices and passports are issued with the complete name.
When Eva Duarte married Juan Domingo Perón, she could be addressed as Eva Duarte de Perón, but the preferred style was Eva Perón
Eva Perón
María Eva Duarte de Perón was the second wife of President Juan Perón and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She is often referred to as simply Eva Perón, or by the affectionate Spanish language diminutive Evita.She was born in the village of Los Toldos in...
, or the familiar and affectionate Evita (little Eva).
Combined names come from old traditional families and are considered one last name, but are rare. This is due to the fact that although Argentina is a Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
speaking country, it is also composed of other varied European influences
Demographics of Argentina
This article is about the demographic features of Argentina, including population density, ethnicity, economic status and other aspects of the population....
, such as Italian, French, Russian, German, etc.
Children typically use their father's last name only. Some state offices have started to use both last names, in the traditional father then mother order, to reduce the risk of a person being mistaken for others using the same name combinations, e.g. if Eva Duarte and Juan Perón had a child named Juan, he might be misidentified if he were called Juan Perón, but not if he was known as Juan Perón Duarte.
In early 2008, some new legislation is under consideration that will place the mother's last name ahead the father's last name, as it is done in Portuguese-speaking countries and only optionally in Spain, despite Argentina being a Spanish-speaking country.
Chile
In ChileChile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, marriage has no effect at all on either of the spouses' names, so people keep their birth names for all their life, no matter how many times marital status, theirs or that of their parents, may change. However, in some circles, it is still customary for a wife to use her husband's name as reference, as in "Doña María Inés de Ramirez" (literally Lady Maria Ines (wife of) Ramirez).
Children will always bear the surname of the father followed by that of the mother, but if there is no known father and the mother is single, the Children can bear either both of her mother's surnames or the mother's first surname followed by any of the surnames of the mother's parents or grandparents, or the child may bear the mother's first surname twice in a row.
Sweden
Only since the beginning of the 20th century has it been common in ScandinaviaScandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
for women to take their husband's last name. However, since the women's liberation movement
Women's liberation movement
The Women's Liberation Movement was a political movement, born in the 1960s from Second-Wave Feminism.It generated mythology almost before it was born such as bra burning - and it was allegedly a matter of deep concern to those within it at the time that its history would allegedly be rewritten...
in the 1970s, more women have chosen to keep their original name as had been the custom for centuries. Many women who change their name either take their husband's name as a "middle name" and use their maiden name as their surname, or keep their maiden name as a middle name and use their husband's surname as a new surname. Since a person cannot have two surnames in the official registries, women often register the maiden or the married name as a "middle name", a name not to be considered a given name or a surname. There is a perception that well-educated women with a career do this more often since they may have acquired a good reputation in professional circles by their maiden name before they get married, which would be in difficulty if they changed their name.
The most common Swedish surnames end with "-sson", which means "son of" in English. Until recently, surnames ending with "-sdotter" ("daughter of" in English) were not so common, but recent legislation allows any daughter to take either parent's name and add "-sdotter" as a surname. A daughter of Sven can thus take the name "Svensdotter" meaning "daughter of Sven". The same rules apply to sons, who can take the name "Svensson" meaning "son of Sven", or (very uncommon so far but allowed) their mother's name ending with "-sson", like "Mariasson" if their mother's name is Maria. This is very similar to the system used in Iceland but applied to a greater extent. However, very few people take surnames like this in Sweden. Most people use the traditional structure.
Thailand
In Thai law, before 2005, a woman was required to take her husband's surname. The new rule in 2005 (2548 BE) has allow Thai married couples to:- Have no surname changes
- Use the husband's surname
- Use the wife's surname
- Swap surnames between husband and wife (very rare cases)
A Thai wife that adopted her husband's surname due to the old law requiring it, can also change back to use her original surname.
Other
A less common, but growing, alternative is for the married couple to create a new non-hyphenated name. This name may be a combination of letters from both surnames, it may be a name found on distant branches of both family trees, or it may be a new name altogether. This allows any children to have the same name and is equal in that both parties must give up their original surnames. One example of this is Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, USA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa , born Antonio Ramón Villar, Jr., is the 41st and current Mayor of Los Angeles, California, the third Mexican American to have ever held office in the city of Los Angeles and the first in over 130 years. He is also the current president of the United States Conference of...
. Born Antonio Villar, upon marrying wife Corina Raigosa, fused their surnames into the present Villaraigosa. One possible criticism against this practice is that it makes families harder to trace via genealogy, though a counter-argument would be that it makes the mother's genealogical information easier to trace. In many countries a legal record must be filed in order to make this name change, which increases the level of complexity.
Same-sex marriages
Public and legal acknowledgment of same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
is well established in some regions, though still uncommon due to its illegality in most regions
Status of same-sex marriage
The status of same-sex marriage changes frequently as legislation and legal action takes place around the world. Summarized in this article are the current trends and consensus of political authorities and religions throughout the world.-Civil recognition:...
. Trends in the nuptial naming practices associated with same-sex marriage have not yet been observed. LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
people may make such decisions on an individual basis. In some civil law jurisdictions like the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, same-sex spouses or registered partners have the same legal options as heterosexual spouses to acquire, or—in the case of the Netherlands—use, the other partner's surname.
Legal status of name changes at marriage
Laws respecting married names vary. In areas whose legal systems derive from the English common lawCommon law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
—such as most parts of the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
—a name change
Name change
Name change generally refers to a legal act allowing a person to adopt a name different than their name at birth, marriage, or adoption. The procedures and ease of a name change depend on the jurisdiction. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose limitations on name changes while civil law...
usually does not require much legal action, because a person can choose to be known by any name (except with intent to defraud). Married persons who take their spouse's name must get a new driver's license and National Insurance or Social Security card, etc., and inform the company they work for, etc. However, the legal process for a name change due to marriage is, in many jurisdictions, still simpler and faster than for other kinds of name change. In many jurisdictions whose legal systems derive from the civil law
Civil law (legal system)
Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections, as compared to common law systems that gives great precedential weight to common law on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different...
—such as France, Spain, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, the Canadian province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, and the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
—however, the default position is for a woman's "legal name
Legal name
Legal name is the name that an individual is given at birth and/or recognized by a government or other legal entity, or which appears on a birth certificate , marriage certificate , or other government issued document on which a legal name change is evidenced and...
" to remain the same throughout life: Citizens there who wish to change their names legally must usually apply to do so via a formal procedure.
In 2007, Michael Buday and Diana Bijon enlisted the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
and filed a discrimination lawsuit against the state of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. According to ACLU, the obstacles facing a husband who wishes to adopt his wife's last name violate the equal protection clause provided by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. At the time of the lawsuit, only the states of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and North Dakota
North Dakota
North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
explicitly allow a man to change his name through marriage with the same ease as a woman. As a result of the lawsuit, a California state lawmaker introduced a bill to put a space on the marriage license for either spouse to change names.
Feminism and preserving one's personal name
Jane GrantJane Grant
Jane Grant was a New York City journalist who co-founded The New Yorker with her first husband, Harold Ross.-Her life:...
, of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, wrote in 1943 of her efforts to keep her name despite her marriage, as well as other women's experiences with military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
service, passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
s, voting
Voting
Voting is a method for a group such as a meeting or an electorate to make a decision or express an opinion—often following discussions, debates, or election campaigns. It is often found in democracies and republics.- Reasons for voting :...
, and business. She and others formed the Lucy Stone League
Lucy Stone League
The Lucy Stone League is a women’s rights organization founded in 1921. Its motto is "My name is the symbol of my identity and must not be lost"...
, named for Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone was a prominent American abolitionist and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged...
, who had earlier won her fight to keep her name. "We [in the League] . . . made ourselves generally troublesome", with legal cases, mass meetings, signing into hotels openly, and going to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Genealogy
Most genealogistsGenealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
prefer to refer to a mother by her maiden name when they are constructing a pedigree, whether in chart form such as a family tree or in some written form. This convention is used because it is a concise way of presenting genealogical information. Thus they would write (or show on a pedigree chart
Pedigree chart
A pedigree chart is a diagram that shows the occurrence and appearance or phenotypes of a particular gene or organism and its ancestors from one generation to the next, most commonly humans, show dogs, and race horses....
) a child as e.g. the son of John Smith and Mary Brown.
See also
- Double-barrelled nameDouble-barrelled nameIn English speaking and some other Western countries, a double-barrelled name is a family name with two parts, which may or may not be joined with a hyphen and is also known as a hyphenated name. An example of a hyphenated double-barrelled surname is Bowes-Lyon; an example of an unhyphenated...
- Family nameFamily nameA family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
- Given nameGiven nameA given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
- Lucy Stone LeagueLucy Stone LeagueThe Lucy Stone League is a women’s rights organization founded in 1921. Its motto is "My name is the symbol of my identity and must not be lost"...
- MatrinameMatrinameMatrilineal surnames, or equivalently matrinames, are inherited or handed down from mother to daughter in matrilineal cultures, and this line of descent or "mother line" is called a matriline...
- Name changeName changeName change generally refers to a legal act allowing a person to adopt a name different than their name at birth, marriage, or adoption. The procedures and ease of a name change depend on the jurisdiction. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose limitations on name changes while civil law...
- Patrilineal surname