The Name Game

One of the early American suffragettes, Lucy Stone, refused to adopt her husband's name when she got married to Henry Blackwell in 1855, arguing that "my name is the symbol of my identity." Her name also became a rallying cry for other women who chose to keep their maiden names, though relatively few have done so until the past few years. Today growing numbers of married women are following in Lucy Stone's footsteps. Explains Pat Montandon, a San Francisco writer and former television moderator: "What is important about your own name is the psychology of being yourself instead of living through someone else."

Some women, like Susan McGovern Rowen, daughter of Senator George McGovern, are opting to switch back from their husbands' to their "birth names." ("Maiden" name, it is generally agreed, seldom applies to today's bride.) Others like Nancy Lee-Borden, a graduate student at the University of North Dakota, and Geraldine Yarnal-Truslow, a psychiatric social worker in The Bronx, hyphenate their own and their husbands' names. A handful, noting that their birth names are really other men's names--their fathers'--call themselves Sarahchild, Murielchild or the like, after their mothers.

Though many of the brides who reject their husbands' names are concerned with maintaining their identity in marriage, women who have jobs (as 40% of adult females now do) often simply find it less confusing to their associates or clients. Those who have established credit may want to maintain a rating independent of their husbands. They also do not want to go to the trouble of changing Social Security cards, drivers' licenses, passports and other forms of identification.

Common Law. To inform women of the law in regard to their names, several organizations have been formed around the country, including Name Change in Newton, Mass., and the Center for a Woman's Own Name in Barrington, Ill. They explain, for example, that Hawaii is the only state that specifically requires a woman to adopt her husband's name. Under English common law, which prevails almost everywhere else, women may select any name they choose so long as they use it consistently and are not committing a fraud. In some states, however, specific agencies may require a woman to change her name through the courts. Cases are pending to determine whether married women can vote under their birth names (in Minnesota) and obtain drivers' licenses (in Kentucky). Airlines are often reluctant to grant family fares to couples traveling under different names; banks at times balk at issuing joint accounts to husbands and wives who have separate names. In one case, a bank officer suggested that the couple choose a third, corporate name. They did: "Love Collaborators, Inc."

When they have children, some couples give the mother's name to daughters and the father's to sons, or create some combination of the two. A variant is to hyphenate the mother's and father's names. Given that, some hapless offspring of today's children might well be burdened with a mouthful like John Smith-Jones-Doe-McLaughlin.

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