Rachel Caldwell didn’t want to change her name when she got married, but she is glad she did now that she has her daughter, Seren.“Why did this empowered, intelligent, extraordinary woman change her name?” asks Dr Tania Penovic, a senior lecturer in law at Monash University, specialist in women’s rights and research program leader in gender and sexuality for the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law.
Albury-based marriage celebrant Sharon Milsome conducts between 60 and 70 ceremonies a year and has done so for a decade. In her experience, there are two impetuses for a name change, both revolving around children. “There’s a rush on before schools and a rush on before they have babies. The name seems to be very important to a lot of people.”Those who don’t make the switch tend to work in fields in which their names are prominent, such as doctors and teachers, she says.
Rachel Chivers married three years ago, when she became Rachel Caldwell. She and her husband consider themselves equals, not traditional. “Previously, I was quite opposed to it,” she said.
It’s surprising to me that 80% of women do this. But I guess there’s still a great deal of expectation and pressure to do it
So you get that by keeping your original surname you are just swapping one man’s name for another..?
It's an old tradition.
I have no clue!
Indeed. Why don't ee just change our names as we see fit or how we feel on a daily basis?
Typical 'modern' journo-Stirring angst and furthering the cause of dismantling the sanctity and love of marriage, driving division. Bitter and twisted much?
it 'feeds into power structures' - and I add, 'white power' structures. This isn't about marriage or traditional man-trolling etc. Its about how 'white power' stands today with money and names, and how this can affect a job application, for instance. You can guess the rest.
Shock horror, I think it might have something to do with tradition.
Why do think some fathers do pay to off load them!😀
So.... where did their maiden name come from then? (hint: not their mother)
Why wouldn’t they!
I’ve seen comments “1 family” and I get it but the ? is why husband’s name? Tradition? Yes but the world’s a different place to what it was. If a woman wants to change it, sure. However there’re men who insist on women changing the surname. Those men can go back to 19th century
Kerrie trying to strip up some shit for International Women’s Day 🙄
My ex wife has still kept my surname 25 years on after our divorce not that it bothers me
What do you mean by modern? What do you mean by women? What do you mean by husband? What do you mean by names? You want to water everything down to nothing and pretend it means something more, you and yours will fail. Full control of the media and you're still failing.
My wife's surname was same as mine. So nothing changed.
Bonding?
Because then if they have children, they all have the same last name, instead of some hyphen last name that gets handed to the children. Think about it. I mean it is tradition, and it seems anything with tradition is being pushed to die. Some men take the wife's last name instead
Why do we question everything in our current society and thinks it’s wrong or bad or defaming or offensive
So their children share the same name... like a family. My son and I don’t share surnames, I wish we did.
I didn't
I wouldn’t change my name for anyone and find it unusual that it still happens in this day and age. Each to their own.
Haha always fun to kill wifes's surname to wipe her side of the family
Genuine question for others who didn’t change their name - what name do you put on the family Tupperware? It’s the biggest sticking point I’ve had with keeping my name!
We each kept our names
Never know why to change surname.
Usually for kids.
Because they want to.
I’ve been very happily married 35 yr, love my husband and his name dearly, two beautiful children! I took his name, it seemed expected at the time- if I could have my time over, I’d of kept mine
Red tape (especially if you got assets) makes it a time consuming process. Honestly not worth it.
I don’t know. It’s so weird.
Because their fiances will drop them if they don't or not defend them when the fiance's family badgers and pesters and passive-aggressively bullies them for the rest of their married life.
My mother in law advised my wife not to bother since it's apparently a lot of hassle to change it back after divorce.
Seems to be that most women today can make that decision for themselves. I know a lot of married women who have kept their maiden name for all sorts of reasons.
I never considered it for a second back in 1982. Nor did my husband. I'd never have taken his surname and it didn't occur to me.
Because nothing has changed. IWD2021
Tradition, not law. I changed my name but can still trace my paternal heritage back to 1643.
I didn’t.
It’s an interesting conundrum. From a purely practical marketing POV, you spend decades building your personal brand and then you do a major rebrand.
It’s a choice and I’m ok with it
Probably no different to asking why people bother getting married?
Because they want to?
Fucked if I know
so that their great great grandchildren can fill out an online form
Don’t make life too complex. Choose any name you want to name you
Well, it would all depend on whether the husbands surname was better. In my case it was.
So people aren't called Michelle Smith-Robertson-O'Brien-Rogers-Papadopalous-Wang-Smith
Some us were born with shitty names that we got made fun of for in middle school and we just want a common non make funable name
Because it’s tradition and if you’re offended , like so many other f’n things, do what you f’n want. This is becoming an absolute joke.
I actually legally changed my name . Not my birth or my husbands . Completely different first and last name and my children have their dads surname . 18 years later all is good .
My wife didn't.
Tradition. Where does a woman's maiden name come from? Their father.
Never changed my name. Stupid.
I changed my name just before marriage, on our sons birth certificate it has wife's 'birth surname' listed but mine is just blank - remembering that name changes are done by birth, deaths and marriages, the same place tge birth certificate comes from. It's cultural.
I didn't particularly like my maiden name.
I’m doing a bit of family history. It certainly is easier to track when the traditional rules apply.
I have never understood the mechanics of ‘marriage name change’? It says on a marriage certificate- Boy marries Girl. Nowhere does it say that girl becomes boy I kept mine/married 25years ago. It ruffled a few feathers at the time!
In Asia, women keep their maiden names. In Japan, if the wife is from a prominent family the husband takes on the wife's surname.
Because they are slaves to a patriarchal system without realising it !
Because they’re not really very modern?
(Part 1) I think it comes down not only to tradition, but chivalry as well. When a woman takes her husbands surname, they become one. As is what a marriage is supposed to be, the unity of two people coming together
Coz it's practical. If I stayed Saldanha, my husband is Rodrigues, our girls would be Saldanha-Rodrigues If one daughter married Pereira-Pinto, their kids would be Saldanha-Rodrigues-Pereira-Pinto. See a problem?
Cause their fathers were cunts?
That’s it. Changing your name is feeding the patriarchy and toxic men or something
I double barreled, which made my surname ridiculously long. Dropped it the minute I got divorced. I'll NEVER marry again. No need. No point.
inheritance lol
Here for the comments
I didn’t change my name. Our son took my husband’s surname and our daughter took my surname. For us it’s about more than convenience. It’s symbolic of our equality and that family goes beyond names.
Why wouldn’t they? What’s the problem?
1 family
I disagree about the point that teachers don’t change their surname. I work in this sector and most of my female colleagues change their names after marrying.
Because we fall in love. And we’re tired of new age feminism.
So they can take their husband's money...
My wife didn't. Do I care? NO.
Because they want to perhaps? DearOhDear one can take any name they wish to. smh theage 9NewsAUS 2GB873 auspol
Not all do
Because it’s their own damn business.
I took my husbands surname - he left me with two kids to raise - no support - financial or otherwise. Their successes are theirs but they also reflect his name and not mine. In 2021 don’t do it - choose a name you feel reflects you both.
How many times have I heard the comment “let’s hope it’s a boy next time so you can continue the family name” Why this is important is a mystery to me.
I kept my surname we gave the kids my husbands surname and never had an issue in 30 years, why does the female have to change her name, it’s rubbish!
To create the family identity. No one forces them it’s a tradition. Everyone has the same family name.
Who would ! I didnt in 80’s such old news
Maybe because they're actually not so modern? Seriously, it's beyond me.
Because they collaborate in the subordination of women, that’s why.
Because marriage is a sacrament not a convenient legal arrangement to own half of everything just by the virtue of raging hormones. If you like a person, you should also like the family values that made him that person. Marriage is a union between two families No man is an island
Because they want to. There. Problem solved.
As a mother you have the choice should you decide to have the same surname as your children at least until your own daughters marry.
In my small circle, the marriages did not last where the wife did not take the husbands name. Seems to be something about commitment there.
Yet no one said that their husband offered to take their wife’s name
I know some couples who have chosen the wife’s surname, but generally a shared surname is faster to fill in forms, make dinner reservations & identity the kids in a family. Not sure they’re great reasons, it’s just convenient.
Yeah I dunno, something to do with thousands of years of tradition that has never been questioned until the “delicate offended snowflakes” came along and got all offended by thousands of years of history before them...
Well, it would be weird if they took other women’s husbands’ names, wouldn’t it?
Next week on SMH: Why do women want men?
Why do they get married? Why do they have children? Why not womxn? There are many whys. And the list is getting ∞
... so their ex's can't find them ?
Because they get married
Maybe because NOT everyone believes in your anti-father and anti-male crap?
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