A recent survey found that fewer than ten percent of American women plan to keep their names after getting married, down from 23 percent in the nineties.
Both Ali and Ophira kept their last names when they got married. Ali says she kept hers because, “I can’t spell my husband’s name to save my life.” (If you didn’t already know, Ali’s husband is George Stephanopoulos.) Ophira kept hers because, “it never occurred to me once to take my husband’s name.”
Both women agreed that the case for taking a husband’s name, these days, often comes down to convenience. Ali always says, “Ali Stephanopoulos” when she writes a note for her daughter’s school. Since that’s her daughters last name, “I don’t want them to be like, ‘Ali Wentworth…Ali Wentworth…is that Milo’s mom?'”
I – Word Understanding
To save my life – extremely bad at doing something
Maiden name – name of a person given at birth
Married name – family name taken by a person upon marriage
II – Have your say
1.Some women take their husband’s name as a romantic notion. However some women say it is inconvenient to do so.
2.In Japan, some foreigners (although uncommon), take the wife’s surname.
3.In many cultures, a woman inherits her father’s last name and later on change to her husband’s name. This is criticized as showing the woman is under the control of her father and husband. Gender equality is another issue.
4.Although not yet common, some options are joining both names and name blending.
