What's in a name?

I often read the New York Times weddings and celebration section. One thing that I like to look for is how many new brides decide to keep their maiden names. It's usually about half and most mention that the bride is keeping her name for professional reasons.

A recent piece in the Wall Street Journal questions what it means for women to change their names. The author, Joann Lublin talks about her decision not to change her name when she got married 30 years ago when it was seen as radical not to change one's name. Ms. Lublin explains that while happy with her decision she never imagined the difficulty and confusion it would cause in business and social situations.

While we as a society may be more tolerate and supportive of the decisions brides make regarding their names, it is much more common for women to take on their husband's names. Using the 2004 American Community Survey, Gooding and Kreider show that only 6 percent of native women had "non-conventional" surnames (hyphenated, two surnames, kept surname after marriage). Not surprisingly, women with higher education were more likely to have non-conventional surnames. Women with doctorates were about 10 times more likely to have non-conventional surnames.

However, even if a woman keeps her maiden name, that name most likely belonged to her father. I guess the only solution for brides who truly want to break with the male surname norm is to create an entirely new name. Something to think about!