When a couple decides to get married, one question that the bride-to-be will often hear is “Are you planning to take his name?”. What once once a no-brainer is now a matter for personal reflection and consideration, based on a number of different factors, including societal, family, and professional. These days, it is not just the new wife with a decision to make; sometimes the husband takes his wife’s name. This is a look at all of the name change options for the newly married couple.

The first option is to do nothing; both the husband and wife may choose to keep the names which they have always had. One reason to do this would be for professional purposes. If the wife has an established career in her field under her maiden name, she may feel it could be detrimental to her career to change it. Some women in this position may feel comfortable being addressed as “Mrs.” socially, but do not legally adopt their husband’s name for career reasons.

It is long been traditional in our patriarchal society for a new wife to change her name to her husband’s last name. The traditional bride who loves all the timeless traditions of weddings from wearing her mother’s gown and pearl necklace to old-fashioned vows will likely opt to change her name. To this new wife, taking her husband’s name is as special a part of getting married as wearing the family pearl necklace. Of course, plenty of less tradition-bound brides also choose to take their husband’s names. They may feel it signals that the two are truly a family now or they might wish to ensure that they will have the same surname as their future children. However, if the bride was previously married and has children with the last name as her ex-husband, she might decide to keep her ex’s name in order to have a last name in common with her kids.

Another option for a name change is to hyphenate the bride and groom’s first and last names. This is quite common in places like England, where many children grow up with hyphenated surnames. Of course, future generations will have to decide what to do when Susan Howard-Klein marries Roger Young-Green, as Mrs. Roger Howard-Klein-Young-Green is a bit of a mouthful! When the choice is made to adopt a hyphenated last name, both the husband and wife may take the new hyphenated name, or the wife might simply add her husband’s name to the end of her maiden name.

More and more couples these days like the idea of combining their two last names into one completely new surname. This often depends on how well the two names blend together. For instance, a simple last name such as Smith is pretty easy to blend (Klein + Smith = Kleinsmith), whereas names like Towlkowski and Mariotti might be harder to combine into a pleasant sounding name. Some couples like the blended name because it is a way of bringing both families into one, but other couples might feel like by giving up their original last names, they are distancing themselves from their heritage.

One final option is for the groom to adopt the bride’s last name. This remains fairly uncommon in our patriarchal society, but it is not completely unheard of. It may be that the bride is famous (Academy Award winner Mary Smith) or has a career established under her name (Judge Mary Smith), and the groom has a career in which name recognition is less important (like an engineer or a computer programmer). In some instances, the bride comes from a family with a famous last name, which makes sense for the couple to use socially (thus Greg Jones becomes Greg Rockefeller or Greg Vanderbilt). Or it could just be that the bride is more attached to her last name than the groom is to his. There are so many options these days for surnames that the newly married couple should be able to find a choice that they will both feel good about.

Author Bio: Bridget Mora writes for Silverland Jewelry about marriage, society, and customs. Treat yourself to a pearl necklace, earrings, or bracelet from http://silverlandjewelry.com/ and receive complimentary shipping on your jewelry order over $99.

Category: Marriage
Keywords: pearl necklace, name change, taking husband\’s name,