"Despite it being 2013 and not 1066, women – just everyday women, not women who play the 02 – still chuck away their own family names and the name they established a career in as it’s “just what you do”.
We change our names because over centuries we’ve been hoodwinked – by the Bible, by parliament, by the banks, by Disney, by our peers, by our in-laws and by sniffy people with forms who want boxes ticked – into thinking that losing your name is no big deal."
This article talks about Beyonces decision to use her married name of Mrs Carter as the name of her upcoming tour.
I've been thinking about the idea of names changing due to marriage and questioning why it is that 86 percent of married women still take their husbands names.
Without even thinking about the fact that it has been your sole identifier for the entireity of your life and why should any woman give that up, I realised that having the same name as your family identifies you as part of that group. If and when I chose to get married I was to take the same name as my husband I would be cutting ties to the family that I am part of now, (even more so if my sister was to do the same thing.)
But having said that, were I to keep my name as it is now, my identity would not be connected with my husband (and potentially children) and I would question if I would feel married at all.
It never occurred to me before that as a woman you have to make a choice between who you are connected to via your name, whereas a man happily shares his with his mother, father, siblings, wife and children.
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