One replied, “Oh, I’m definitely keeping mine.” (And she did.)

The other replied, “I’m hyphenating mine.” (She still stands by this.)

The turned and asked me, “What about you, Emma?” I replied, “I’m taking my husband’s name, of course.” They were both surprised. I suppose I do come across as more liberal than I actually am.

Then I thought about it—why is something traditional considered old-fashioned? I agree that some social decorum may be considered out-dated, but some of it is kind of fun.

I like when the fellows open the door for me. I am perfectly capable of opening doors for myself, but I take it as a sweet gesture.

I think it’s cute when the fellows walk on the outside edge of the sidewalk, in case a runaway car jumps the curb, he can push me out of the way. If a car jumps a curb, it would suck for the both of us, but still…it’s cute.

Social decorum is that the woman takes the husband’s last name, but it’s not forced upon us. For the most part, I feel that people who are involved in your life, people you wish to stay involved in your life, would know that you were getting married and know that a name change may be coming. Besides, don’t most women just put their names in parentheses on Facebook?

I look forward to the day I join my husband’s brand. Perhaps I could kick it up a notch or two.

Excellent topic.

One replied, “Oh, I’m definitely keeping mine.” (And she did.)

The other replied, “I’m hyphenating mine.” (She still stands by this.)

The turned and asked me, “What about you, Emma?” I replied, “I’m taking my husband’s name, of course.” They were both surprised. I suppose I do come across as more liberal than I actually am.

Then I thought about it—why is something traditional considered old-fashioned? I agree that some social decorum may be considered out-dated, but some of it is kind of fun.

I like when the fellows open the door for me. I am perfectly capable of opening doors for myself, but I take it as a sweet gesture.

I think it’s cute when the fellows walk on the outside edge of the sidewalk, in case a runaway car jumps the curb, he can push me out of the way. If a car jumps a curb, it would suck for the both of us, but still…it’s cute.

Social decorum is that the woman takes the husband’s last name, but it’s not forced upon us. For the most part, I feel that people who are involved in your life, people you wish to stay involved in your life, would know that you were getting married and know that a name change may be coming. Besides, don’t most women just put their names in parentheses on Facebook?

I look forward to the day I join my husband’s brand. Perhaps I could kick it up a notch or two.

Excellent topic.

And Ashley, I’m glad to know that I can legally keep my “maiden name.” It’s sad to me that you wasted yours and my precious moments of life helping me understand what a maiden name is.

Bill, Molly, Ashley, do you really need to be this dramatic? Your kids will be more traumatized by your lack of common sense than any choice of name you may screw up while giving them.

Clem, I expected more from you, and Helenans generally…

“If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?”

Your favorite feminist/activist
- Gloria Steinem

My wife kept her “maiden” name.

We considered the hyphenation thing for the kids, but decided that just got too silly, and we went semi-conventional on that (they officially have “my” last name, and her last name is one of their middle names).

As previously mentioned, the issue is not so much about equality as it is about legality [with children]. There are a myriad of legal issue with parents and children who do not have the same last name (think hospitals, school systems, etc.). But that is not to say that the woman should automatically take her husband’s last name… My Uncle and Aunt had the right idea in terms of simple equality- they flipped a coin. Whoever won the coin toss was the owner of their new last name upon marriage. My uncle won, but there was a 50/50 chance that he would have taken my Aunt’s last name.

As far as your terminology… I don’t know that many women who take their husband’s last name consider it “branding” in the same capacity as a product, company or when referring to the burning of cattle’s flesh. I consider myself to be a single entity regardless of my last name. If we are going to discuss names as playing a roll in success or failure, we would have to do a comparative review of all of the men who have succeeded or failed based upon their family’s namesake. If you are good at what you do, people know you and will find you- no matter what your last name is.

In closing, I will say that I sincerely appreciate you thinking about this topic for more than a fleeting moment, and appreciate you blogging about it even more

Hyphenated-names can solve the problem for one generation, but it doesn’t scale.

Maybe when people get married they should both abandon their personal brands and form a new one! That is, both adopt a new last name.

We did this to a small degree–Malgosia & I abandoned any personal blogs and started http://married-inc.com/. We even considered moving to one email address (seriously!) but we too often need to send stuff to each other.

This solution would scale well. It would complicate the work of geneologists, but what’s more important?

I don’t know if this makes sense, but its a great thing to think about. Thanks Davey!