Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!ora!ora!daemon From: ag1v+@andrew.cmu.edu (Andrea B. Gansley-Ortiz) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: Name Change Upon Marriage? Message-ID: Date: 28 Aug 90 20:47:38 GMT Sender: ambar@ora.com (Jean Marie Diaz) Organization: O'Reilly and Associates Inc., Cambridge MA Lines: 32 Approved: ambar@ora.com I don't believe in a woman changing her name to her husband's for the sake of tradition. One couple I know did hyphenate their names and both use both names. My roommate had decided early on that whichever name was easier to spell was the name she would use. She is choosing her fiance's name. I won't choose my husband's name because I feel that I (note the 1st p. s.) would loose part of my identity as an individual and feel more like his property. I have worked long and hard for individuals to say my last name in it's entirety. Gansley-Ortiz is not that difficult to say, especially when you've had a chance to look at how it's spelled. Yet people still try to call me 'Ortiz' or 'Gansley', neither of which are my last name. I love my last name and I wouldn't give it up for the world. Let me also say that that's how I feel now and if 'Mr. Wonderful' so completely sweeps me off my feet, that there is a possibility that my feelings might change. A slight possibility. Another reason I don't advocate name changes is that it is harder to find a married woman if she changes her name. Also, if you are in the professional world, a lot of the work you did before you were married goes unnoticed, (not out of malice but) because people don't know that it's the same person's work they're reading or talking about. If you received any of your degrees in your maiden name, it is much easier to keep that name, then to go through the unnecessary hassle of having to point out your accomplishments to people who don't know your maiden name and are likely to forget it because it is not your name now. My Quarter's worth ag