by Hamlet Pericles

Created on: October 02, 2007   Last Updated: July 08, 2011

Women worldwide go through many name changes upon marriage (or marriages), which makes this topic interesting.  It raises an abundance of questions, but the main question is clear: should a woman’s maiden name be expendable and dropped upon marriage?   

A woman should never drop her maiden name and adopt her husband's last name (surname) upon marriage, because that is her history.  Rather, the husband's surname should be added to her maiden name. This archaic tradition of dropping a woman's maiden name has been practiced for centuries worldwide and continues in the present day, but it has a condescending motif about it.

Because 90 percent of American women instinctively choose to drop their maiden name when they utter the words “I do,” it is safe to say that the whole debate over retaining one's name is a minute issue; it's basically nonexistent. However, for those vocal women who personify a strong mind and care to preserve their history, the questions and debates regarding maiden names continue.

In the 1850s, an activist/suffragette by the name of Lucy Stone outraged many by pioneering a movement to keep maiden names alive.  In fact, when she married Henry Blackwell, an abolitionist, Stone decided to keep her name and refused to take her husband’s name.   Her actions precipitated the Lucy Stone League, founded in New York in 1921, where a group of women dedicated themselves to the conservation of women's maiden names.  Because of Stone’s actions and refusal to drop her name for her husband’s, women have been labeled "Lucy Stoners" if they choose not to drop their maiden names to adopt their husbands’ names.

The maiden name issue is problematic on many levels.

Firstly, when a woman is brought into this world by her parents, she gets the last name of her father to show affiliation, which does not present a problem. The problem occurs when she weds, because she drops her birth name (her father's last name) and adopts her husband's last name.  Metaphorically speaking, this can be viewed negatively as supremacy and indirect ownership via name affiliation.  Why? Because the man that brings her into this world, rightfully identifies her with his name, which is later changed to the husband's name, signifying superiority and ownership.

Back in the day when slavery was accepted, slaves were given a name that affiliated them with their masters. When the master was through abusing

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