Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!jarthur!ucivax!gateway From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: Name Change After Marriage Message-ID: <1990Aug22.105323.1333@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 23 Aug 90 17:44:41 GMT References: <220@sierra.STANFORD.EDU> <24409@megaron.cs.arizona.edu> Organization: SF Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 36 Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: alexandre-dumas.ics.uci.edu bweiss@cs.arizona.edu (Beth Weiss) writes: ["Ann" changes name to match new husband's in mid life...] >From a professional point of view, Ann has committed suicide. She has >lost all name recognition. From a personal point of view, she's lost >her _name_. >I have to admit I'm always slightly amazed when I meet a >professional woman who changed her name when she got married. The >older the woman when she married, the more amazed I am. To me, >it means that she's not completely serious about her own career, and >she's willing to let it take second place to her husband's. There is nothing in particular preventing one from having it both ways. One of my sisters-in-law married after taking her MD in radiology. She is "Dr. Catherine Everett" professionally, but "Mrs. Jessie Joseph Goins" socially. [Mrs. Catherine Goins was not a viable option in her cultural group.] So long as there is not an attempt to deceive, most states' laws let you call yourself anything you please (men and women both). [Hereabouts, with an appropriate warning posted once in the papers, I can call myself "Treehouse Computer Consulting", legally, as one of my names to sign checks by, and it is done every day.] She chose what made her happy in her social setting and allowed her to retain her professional identity at the same time. In the (unlikely) event she and her husband end up deciding custody of their five children, she can resume her professional name exclusively, with minor disruption. Kent, the man from xanth.