Asking with curiosity and respect, for those in the “keeping my name” camp -
You were given your name by your parents, and most often the surname is the father’s surname.
Most of you adopt nicknames or pet names which change over time (what your family calls you vs your friends vs your colleagues)
Why is it a really big deal to you? Is it being asked / expected to change your name by a societal norm / being told what to do? Or the effort involved in changing it?
Source - male, changed my surname when I moved internationally, married, and wife’s family expected her to change her name to mine because we were starting a new family and that would be the family name.
I didn’t give a shit because my surname isn’t my family name, it’s one of my middle names, so it seemed arbitrary, and said so to both her and them.
Wife decided she would change her name and our kid has that name too. It was an absolute pain in the ass to do for her because she’s lived here for much longer than me so had more things to change, so I understand not wanting to deal with that. But years down the track - everyone seems happy - reading through these comments tho many of you view this as wrong??
Generally, women are expected to change their last name to their husband’s last name when they get married. It’s viewed as wrong because it’s needlessly patriarchal.
I’m in a similar boat of my name not being a big deal to me (also male). However, if a name is arbitrary, why should you change it? If it doesn’t matter whether it’s your original name or the name of your spouse, why on earth go to the trouble of changing it in the first place? “That’s how we’ve always done it” has never really held much water for me as an argument. If it’s of merit, it should stand up to scrutiny without the appeal to tradition.
However, to many people, names aren’t arbitrary. From a historical point of view, marriage used to be considered a transaction of property, and a woman’s last name had the connotation of ownership. Were I a woman, I would find that quite abhorrent, and even though that connotation has diminished I still don’t think I could stomach it.
For some specific cases, names hold recognition. I’m a singer and have friends & mentors for whom performing is their full time job. To change your last name after building name recognition can do serious harm to your fame, and thus income. So most of them in that situation will retain their maiden name for job security more than anything.
Yeah it’s not the changing, it’s the expectation. My mom told me one “women don’t have last names”, meaning there is no matrilineal naming convention here. So basically she didn’t care about changing hers because it was her dad’s name or her husband’s, but found it problematic. Why does “family name” follow the men like that, when the kids are born to the mothers?
Asking with curiosity and respect, for those in the “keeping my name” camp -
You were given your name by your parents, and most often the surname is the father’s surname.
Most of you adopt nicknames or pet names which change over time (what your family calls you vs your friends vs your colleagues)
Why is it a really big deal to you? Is it being asked / expected to change your name by a societal norm / being told what to do? Or the effort involved in changing it?
Source - male, changed my surname when I moved internationally, married, and wife’s family expected her to change her name to mine because we were starting a new family and that would be the family name.
I didn’t give a shit because my surname isn’t my family name, it’s one of my middle names, so it seemed arbitrary, and said so to both her and them.
Wife decided she would change her name and our kid has that name too. It was an absolute pain in the ass to do for her because she’s lived here for much longer than me so had more things to change, so I understand not wanting to deal with that. But years down the track - everyone seems happy - reading through these comments tho many of you view this as wrong??
Generally, women are expected to change their last name to their husband’s last name when they get married. It’s viewed as wrong because it’s needlessly patriarchal.
I’m in a similar boat of my name not being a big deal to me (also male). However, if a name is arbitrary, why should you change it? If it doesn’t matter whether it’s your original name or the name of your spouse, why on earth go to the trouble of changing it in the first place? “That’s how we’ve always done it” has never really held much water for me as an argument. If it’s of merit, it should stand up to scrutiny without the appeal to tradition.
However, to many people, names aren’t arbitrary. From a historical point of view, marriage used to be considered a transaction of property, and a woman’s last name had the connotation of ownership. Were I a woman, I would find that quite abhorrent, and even though that connotation has diminished I still don’t think I could stomach it.
For some specific cases, names hold recognition. I’m a singer and have friends & mentors for whom performing is their full time job. To change your last name after building name recognition can do serious harm to your fame, and thus income. So most of them in that situation will retain their maiden name for job security more than anything.
Yeah it’s not the changing, it’s the expectation. My mom told me one “women don’t have last names”, meaning there is no matrilineal naming convention here. So basically she didn’t care about changing hers because it was her dad’s name or her husband’s, but found it problematic. Why does “family name” follow the men like that, when the kids are born to the mothers?
Needlessly Patriarchal is a good way to put it.