Reply to Can't wait to change my surname, but notice many women keeping theirs, is there a reason for this trend?

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Reply to "Can't wait to change my surname, but notice many women keeping theirs, is there a reason for this trend?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are all sorts of cultures that don’t change their names. In fact, in a lot of Western Europe it’s *illegal* to for a woman to change her name.  Quite a lot of this actually traces its history back to feudalism and aristocratic hierarchy (aristocrats when they married change their official titles but the little people stay the same).  The patriarchy isn’t really in play.

In the British tradition, as well as most Scandinavian cultures, and much of Germany (though Germany is a mishmash culturally and thus there’s no singular German tradition on much of anything) names change and it carried forward to the U.S.

The reason for this is likely pragmatic because record keeping was more straightforward.  In the western world, if you look at the countries that have families organized by having 1 consistent last name carried down by the man also have a better organized administrative state when it comes to wills, property lines, tax collection, and many other things.

The biggest outlier here is the Netherlands where it’s illegal to change names and they have a very efficient administrative state.

But it’s not really directly about the patriarchy except insofar as much of everything can be traced back to the “patriarchy”.  Plenty of patriarchal societies (Italy, France, Spain, Greece) don’t change names.

In certain countries, it’s common.  My entire family on all sides traces its roots back 100% to countries with that tradition, so it’s been the tradition in my family.  Who cares?  Not everyone has to do it the same way.  What someone else does doesn’t bother me and I’d appreciate what I do not bother you.[/quote]

The patriarchal aspect of this tradition isn't the expectation that the family has a single name, but the fact that the name needs to come from the man. Sure, plenty of patriarchal culture don't follow that custom, but it doesn't mean the custom is patriarchal.[/quote]

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