What's in a name? Marital name choice revisited

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  Dec, 2006  by Michele Hoffnung

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Women's marital name choice has been of continuing interest to researchers because the choice makes a statement about values and identity. Name choice was an integral part of the fight for women's rights during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Kupper, 1990). Having won the right to choose, second wave feminists have considered keeping one's birth name to be an indicator of feminist values (Dralle, Asson, & Mackiewicz, 1981; Forbes, Adams-Curtis, White, & Hamm, 2002; Stannard, 1977). In a recent study of values Suter (2004) found that her community sample of Catholic women shared that perspective. The sample viewed nontraditional marital naming as feminist and feminism as anti-family and anti-home. In studies of stereotypes of women, Atkinson (1987) and Murray (1997) found that women who kept their birth names were perceived as more feminist and less likely to make good wives than those who took their husband's name. As women's work place participation has increased and diversified into nontraditional occupations, women's identities have increasingly been defined by their roles outside the family. Because names are related to identity, researchers have asked whether more women are keeping their birth names (Intons-Peterson & Crawford, 1985; Scheuble & Johnson, 1993; Scheuble, Klingemann, & Johnson, 2000) and what characteristics women who do keep their birth names have in common (Foss & Edson, 1989; Stafford & Kline, 1996).

Researchers have used a variety of definitions of traditional and nontraditional naming. Keeping one's birth name is always considered nontraditional. Most researchers include hyphenating birth and husband's name in that category as well, although Goldin and Shim (2004) did not. Some also include keeping one's birth name as a middle name (for example, Scheuble & Johnson, 1993; Twenge, 1997), whereas others do not. This disagreement reflects the disparate meanings that keeping one's birth name as a middle name may hold for different women. Southern women have frequently kept their birth name as middle name, because it is a southern tradition to show the lineage of both parental families (Johnson & Scheuble, 1995), whereas Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Hilary Rodham Clinton were making feminist statements when they would not relinquish their birth names and kept them as middle names (Gornick, 2005).

In a survey of currently married women, only 10% were found to have nontraditional names, including birth name, hyphenated name, or birth name as middle name (Brightman, 1994). Younger wives were more likely than older ones, more educated wives were more likely than less educated ones, and those from higher income households were more likely than those from lower income ones to use nontraditional names. The polling sample included women of all ages, many of whom married before 1975 when it became legal in all states for a woman to keep her birth name. Such a sample cannot indicate what contemporary brides choose to do 30 years later.

Studies with college samples have shown higher percentages of women planning to use nontraditional naming when they marry. Scheuble and Johnson (1993) found that 18% of undergraduate women planned to make nontraditional choices, and 82% planned to take their husband's name. Women planning to marry at later ages and expecting nontraditional work roles were more likely to prefer nontraditional naming. Twenge (1997) surveyed traditional age undergraduate women and found that 40% planned to adopt a nontraditional name, including keeping birth name, hyphenating, or using both names, and 60% planned to take their husband's name. In comparison to Scheuble and Johnson's sample, Twenge's sample included more women who were immigrants and Women of Color, which may account for the higher percentage who preferred nontraditional naming. Although taking one's husband's name is traditional in the United States, other cultures have different naming practices. For example, Latin American children are given both parents' names. In addition, ethnic surnames may hold special meaning for those who would have to relinquish them in marriage for a non- or other-ethnic name. Twenge found that women born in countries other than the United States and Women of Color were more likely than White American-born women to choose nontraditional naming. Twenge also found that women who wanted nontraditional names scored higher in feminist attitudes and personal agency than those who wanted traditional marital names. The women in these undergraduate samples were overwhelming single (98%); their expressed preferences do not necessarily reflect what they would actually do when they marry.

In addition to asking respondents about their marital name choices, Twenge (1997) asked them to "Please explain in a few sentences why you made that decision." Women who chose traditional naming most often mentioned tradition (41%), identity (21%), bonding/union in marriage (20%), and no reason (12%). Women who chose nontraditional naming most often mentioned identity (44%), professional reasons (21%), bonding/union in marriage (18%), and like/dislike of names (15%). Identity and bonding/union in marriage clearly were interpreted differently by the two different groups.