The Name Game, Part II

Written on Wednesday, November 02, 2005 by Jessica

I decided to look for more recent statistics on the number of women who change their name upon marriage, because almost every young woman I know thinks hard about keeping her name when she gets married, but I don't know anyone who actually does. According to this article, eighteen percent of brides polled in 2003 planned to keep their birth names. Fifteen percent would hyphenate, and the remaining sixty-seven percent planned to change it.

Side note: I remember that my mother-in-law suggested hyphenation. Ignoring the fact that I would have a seventeen-letter last name, I had no intention of doing any such thing. I told her that I would hyphenate if Bob hyphenated. :)

So eighteen percent were name keepers in 2003. Interesting. I don't know anyone other than myself (and assorted celebrities) who kept their birth names. One coworker uses her birth name here at work, but only because her husband works here, too. She wanted to avoid prying questions from new employees (Is Kevin your husband? Brother?), so her mail box, name plate, etc., still have her birth name. Her paychecks, however, have her married name.

Sort of related: Bob has always enjoyed messing with telemarketers who ask for Mrs. HisName or Mr. MyName. "Sorry, no one by that name lives here." Plenty of people think he's Mr. MyName.

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