Maiden Names, on the Rise Again

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER and DEREK WILLIS
JUNE 27, 2015

When Donna Suh married in September, wearing a short white dress at San Francisco City Hall, she decided to keep her last name. Her reasons were practical, not political.

“It’s not necessarily a feminist reason, but it’s just my name for 33 years of my life,” Ms. Suh said. “Plus, I’m Asian and he’s not, so it’s less confusing for me to not have a white name. And on social media I thought it might be harder to find me.”

The practice of keeping one’s maiden name after marriage — which appears to have declined sometime in the 1980s or 1990s — has begun rising again, according to an Upshot analysis of data from multiple sources. The share has surpassed that of the 1970s. Yet unlike in that Ms. Decade, the decision now tends to be less political. For many women, sociologists say, keeping their maiden names has lost its significance in defining their independence and its symbolism as a feminist act.

Roughly 20 percent of women married in recent years have kept their names, according to a Google Consumer Survey conducted by The Upshot. (An additional 10 percent or so chose a third option, such as hyphenating their name or legally changing it while continuing to use their birth name professionally.)


When Sarah Alexis Lewis married Jason Marino this month, she chose to start going by Mrs. Marino.
LILI HOLZER-GLIER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
By comparison, about 17 percent of women who married for the first time in the 1970s kept their names, a number that fell to 14 percent in the more conservative 1980s before rising to 18 percent in the 1990s, the Google survey shows. These numbers should be viewed as estimates, not precise counts, but the overall trend is apparent across several data sources.

When I got married, I took his last name. When I got divorced I had it changed back to my maiden name

When I got married I took his last name
when I divorced I kept it for it is the same last name as my children.

We had friends that married same year we did that did the whole keep both names thing..
just add the hyphon

I did also.But I always regretted taking his name. Like in this article, it also caused confusion, with people assuming I was his nationally & religion. I also felt I lost my own identify. * I was a people pleaser back then... thank God, that's over *

I have no issues changing my last name.

No way, I could of done the hyphen. Both are named are too ethnic. And there would not have been any space, signing anything.

I still have my Moroccan married name even tho divorced now.had it 18 yrs while married.all documents in it so couldn't be bothered changing it.

And issue ... I had to legally change my name back. Then I had a hell of a party.

ah right lol all good then

Being the only child in a family, I keep my maiden name, while the kids borrowed their dad's surname. Things should be fair

Just out of curiosity & my own experience.. did it bother YOU having a different name that your children?
It bothered me for awhile. NOT that I thought I should... but the part of me that was concerned with what OTHER people thought. .
* Thank God, those days are over *

I will use the hyphen when it happens.

I don't feel in any way, shape or form did I "lose my identity" by taking his name in marriage. I have no problem also STILL BEING Mrs. Married, even though I am legally no longer married. What I DO have trouble with is the Ms. thang. I know it DOES pertain to me being widowed, but I am still and always will be Proud of Our Marriage.
Yes, I would do it again from the beginning. However, I don't know if I would take his name if I got married again. That would have to be a decision for both of us to make.

im old fashioned,, man and woman come together for family, and that family shares a name

so I took his name , and then our child did too,,,,

Next time I marry, I will change my last name to hers. I am a trendsetter.

When I got married I changed my last name to his, after the divorce I kept it as it was my sons last name.....but when I got married again I changed it to his last name......now after the second divorce, I went back to my maiden name.......I don't see marriage in my future, so thinking I'll be keeping my maiden name for awhile.

People are still getting married?
That's nice.

Anymore I only associate marriage with gay people and divorce statistic fears, surreal at best.


If two dudes get married, whose name is taken?
Do they both take each others names?

Because it's traditional to take the husbands name.
...But if you're both husbands....?


I've known people that did that because they come from a large family and they are marrying someone that is an only child, so only way to preserve a family's name.


I think it's much more fun to come up with nicknames.

My ex tried to keep her so-called maiden name after we married, but we live in Virginia,which is a VERY old-fashioned place, and the entire structure of the government and other institutions made it a tremendous and constant amount of work for her to stay with her original family name, so eventually she took mine.

Again, just practicality. For some reason, no one batted an eye when she CHANGED her name to mine, but they put up a constant fuss when she tried to keep her old ID's and use only her birth name at first.

Weird, really.

I went back to my maiden name. Didn't like his to begin with. Man that could have been a sign there lol
Can the guy change his name to the woman's after they get married?

What I find weird, is that if a woman marries and simply starts writing her name differently the next day, the entire legal and financial system accepts that without even blinking.

But should a male do so, he has to go to court and get legal dispensation to do so.