Engaged couples discuss whether one partner will take the other's last name once married. Women have traditionally taken their spouse's last name and passed it on to their children. According to a 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center, 79% of women in opposite-sex marriages took their spouse’s last name, 14% kept their name, and 5% hyphenated their name with their spouse’s.

Challenging Tradition

Suffragist Lucy Stone challenged the long-held tradition when she refused to take her husband’s name in 1855. She was denied the right to vote in a local election in Massachusetts in 1879. Nearly 60 years later, in 1913, Frances Perkins, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet, married and chose to keep her maiden name, a decision met with applause by feminists and resentment from social conservatives.

Perkins stated, “I suppose I had been somewhat touched by feminist ideas, and that [was] one of the reasons that I kept my maiden name. My whole generation was, I suppose, the first generation that openly and actively asserted—at least some of us did—the separateness of women and their personal independence in the family relationship.”

During the 1970s, women fought against state laws for the right to keep their last names and use them to vote, bank, and obtain a passport. However, the 1980s saw a decline in the challenge to tradition. “The pressure is huge,” Laurie Scheuble, a sociology professor at Penn State who studies marital naming, told The New York Times. “This is the strongest gendered social norm that we enforce and expect.”

Why Women Keep Their Names

The age and education of a woman seem to affect whether or not they follow the traditional name change. In 2023, the Pew Research Center found that 20% of married women ages 18 to 49 kept their last name, compared with 9% of those 50 and older while 26% of married women with a postgraduate degree kept their name, 13% with a bachelor’s degree, and 11% with some college or less.

Personal branding and career choice also affect name changes. Many women who keep their names may do so when their careers are established and they are recognized for their achievements by their name, like 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Janet Yellen and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Sheryl Sandberg. Beyoncé hyphenated to Knowles-Carter after marrying Jay-Z, and supermodel Chrissy Teigen kept her last name when she married musician John Leg🐼end.

LGBTQIA+ Couples

Even before 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:same-sex marriage was legalized, laws such as the California Name-Change Equality Act challenged the tradition that only women take a husband’s name in an opposite-sex marriage. The 2007 law allowed one or both parties to a marriage to elect to change the last name the party is known as after marriage.

For LGBTQIA+ marriages, as in heterosexual marriages, taking either spouse's name is a personal choice. Partners may choose one spouse to take the other's name, both parties keep their last name, one or both use a hyphenated surname or a new surname can be created.

Cost and Documentation

When taking a spouse's last name, the legal process happens on the marriage license and certificate. Blending names or creating a new name may require a court petition. The process varies by state, but the application is commonly filed with an individual's county clerk. Costs vary by state and average between $250 and $300 as of 2024. Individuals must update a liಞst 𒅌of official documents and accounts, including:

• Social Security number
• Driver's license
• Voter registration
• Insurance policies
• Passport
• TSA/Global Entry
• Banking accounts
• Credit cards
• Rent, mortgage, and utilities
• Loyalty programs
• Employer's HR office or payroll processor
• Social media profiles
• Email addresses

The Bottom Line

Whether a woman keeps her name or uses her partner's after marriage is a matter of personal preference despite historical traditions. All individuals can opt to keep their last names, and more couples are open to alternatives like name blending, using each other's last names as middle names, or creating an entirely new last name.