Married Women and Surnames

Would like to know the current trend in name changing on marriage
Does the wife get the husbands surname automatically or is it just a choice
Is it a legal process?
Pros and cons of doing so.
e.g. if a Mr and Mrs Smith were real people is it just a assumption people make while calling them so.
Would it be against the law for a woman whose name is Jackie Jones who marries a John Jacob to use Jackie Jacob as her name in applications and day to day documents without legally changing her name.
If illegal in which scenarios can she use this name?

Within the UK its entirely voluntary as to if either the bride or groom wish to name change. While it may sound strange that the groom would change his name, sometimes (albeit rarely) a couple combine their names into a double-barrelled combo.

Its also perfectly legal for people to use their married name in some areas and their previous names in others. One common example of this women in certain professions such as medicine. Some doctors who have practiced under one name for years may continue to practice under that name after getting married and changing their name.

The trend is slowly changing against name-changing though. A generation or two ago it would have been unthinkable for a women not to take the husband's name upon marriage, but it is becoming more and more common now.

One interesting marriage related name thing is the (now fading) tradition of name changing in Greece. It is traditional there for women to take the husband's surname name in the genitive form as their surname when they marry, which would grammatically signify that they are a possession of their husband! This is less popular these days though....

It's pretty much the same in Denmark.

as a small side note:
In Denmark, statistics show, that an increasing number of men take their
wifes name. Men, however, doesn't take their spouses name out of love
- they take it if their wife has a "fancy" lastname (while they have a more
common name).

/Svend Rost

Originally posted by Ajay Mathew:

Does the wife get the husbands surname automatically or is it just a choice
Is it a legal process?

I think its by choice.Never heard newly wed bride arrested for refusing to change her last name.
Initially I thought this is limited to India but now this male chauvinism seems to be everywhere.

[ July 06, 2005: Message edited by: Arjunkumar Shastry ]

I would like to take on my husband's last name, but I don't because its a huge pain. All the documents, passports, INS documents etc need to be changed

Its funny, but when I travel anywhere with my husband and his sister (who is single, and does not have a choice with her last name), she is considered the wife (Mrs.My Husband's Name) and I am the sister

[ July 06, 2005: Message edited by: kayal cox ]

I thought it was interesting the new mayor of LA Antonio Villaraigosa smashed his name and his wife's name together at a common "r" to make a totally new name. If they were real geeks they would have left the R uper case. heh heh.

My wife and I were ambivalent about changing her last name, because changing her passport and stuff would be troublesome. However, when we went to the Mumbai consulate to get an H-4 visa, they said that she has to change her surname to get a visa

Originally posted by Dave Lenton:

The trend is slowly changing against name-changing though. A generation or two ago it would have been unthinkable for a women not to take the husband's name upon marriage, but it is becoming more and more common now.

Yes that�s because of divorce is becoming as common as marriages. The girls don�t want to change their names often.

Its also perfectly legal for people to use their married name in some areas and their previous names in others. One common example of this women in certain professions such as medicine. Some doctors who have practiced under one name for years may continue to practice under that name after getting married and changing their name.

This is where I fit in. we don�t want to get our names legally changed. But we want an alias name for convenience in our society.
My wife is of Chinese origin and the only name that comes to my mind when I talk to her is her Chinese name, but this is quite a problem when it comes get others to pronounce her name right.
For convenience she uses Melody Mathew, now since she is known by this name my concern is if at some point of time we could be accused of fraud or the likes as we have not legally done it.
It requires loads of changes from passport to medicare to Drivers licence banks etc.
I am sure there are many others in this similar situation, that�s why I brought it up here.

Originally posted by Arjunkumar Shastry:

.....arrested for refusing to change her last name........
India.........................
male chauvinism .................

???
You Alright??

Guess you did not read my initial posting completely.
If something was unclear Please let me know and I will try to rephrase my question/topic again

Ajay: Yes that�s because of divorce is becoming as common as marriages. The girls don�t want to change their names often.

So it's like
wife: "nah.. let's not get the same surname.. we'r gonna divorce in a few years anyways"
man: "oh yeah.. ofcause - silly me"

Originally posted by Svend Rost:
Ajay: Yes that�s because of divorce is becoming as common as marriages. The girls don�t want to change their names often.

So it's like
wife: "nah.. let's not get the same surname.. we'r gonna divorce in a few years anyways"
man: "oh yeah.. ofcause - silly me"

Well mu
Its much more like
Wife : nah .. I don�t wanna change my name. I prefer to have it just the way it is.
And in her mind she says �though my heart says its alright my practical side says nothing is certain so I definitely don�t wanna go through the hassles of changing my name. there is always a minute possibility that things may not work out and I hope it does not.�
Man (Husband): � yeah whatever..�
And in his mind he says � she likes her name or she does not like my surname or she is being practical from her point of view because in the end nobody knows whats gonna happen tomorrow.�

A little more serious thought into it
What if the hubby dies??
the wife is in the same boat.
Guess these are things you should consider when you make a move like legally changing your name.

My stand on this topic is not in forcing my wife to change her name. it is more about the consequences, if any, on not legally doing it as my wife already has a �taken� westernized name.