One of my friends said I should write a blog entry about the changing face of marriage these days. He thought it would be interesting to discuss how some woman are choosing not to take their husband’s name anymore. This sounds like a hot-button topic so I thought I’d tackle it here.
It used to be assumed that a wife would change her last name to that of the man she married. Now this is not a given anymore. Some women choose to hyphenate the two names, or not change their name at all. Why is this changing?
Marriage is supposed to be about coming together and truly joining another life. Changing your name is just a symbolic way to show that you have done this. It has meaning. It is bound in history and tradition. Now I know that the history hasn’t always been good but I think that has changed dramatically. Woman should be treated equally and with respect in the household. Changing your name does not denote ownership and mean that you release all control to your husband. If anyone would argue this fact, then they don’t understand the institution of marriage.
Marriage is changing in a lot of ways these days. But it should always be built on mutual respect and love. Marriage is a beautiful institution that I wish to be apart of some day. I hope I can find what my grandparents had. They had a loving relationship that was until death do they part. It was great to see.
I don’t know if marriage is in my future. If it is, I don’t think it would bother me if my wife does not take my name. I understand why women would want to keep their own last name. I don’t know if I would want to change mine. So much of our identity can be tied up in a name. All I know is that I want my children to have my name. That is important to me.
5 responses to “Changing Face of Marriage”
Awww… wow where do you guys come up with this stuff to talk about? All my friends who have gotten married they have changed their last names to the guys they marry. I plan to do the same I like my last name but its hard for ones to pronouce and if I become a techer I think that the name should be easy for the kids and the parents, but hey I am not at that point to decide what I want. All I want to do right now is get out of high school, but I see the point you are trying to say here.
Teachers don’t have to have easy to pronounce names. It shouldn’t even be a consideration.
I know my name is easy but I actually find it kind of rude when a student calls his teacher Mrs. M, simply because he is too lazy to learn how to pronounce her name.
I guess that’s true but some teachers even say call me by the first letter of their last name. But I call my participation in Governent teacher by just his last name without the Mr., even though that is not the proper way to call a teacher. My nickname that he gave me is Diz only because it ryhmed with Liz and he thought of ways to remember our names in his class. But anyway, oh I think its funny to hear teachers pronouce my last name I have like a ton of differnet ways its said.
I think women should be allowed to keep their names, especially is they come from old, renowned families. The really cool part is when you name the kids.
And then when the child with two last names marries another with two last names. And their children will have four last names.
And so on and so forth… hey this is even better than multi-level-marketing.
It’s too much. But what do names really mean anyway?
If we trace back all our family trees we are sure to have common ancestors. And many people have the same names. Same first, last, and even middle names. When it comes to names, it seems that very few are truly unique.
But I agree with you, it should be the woman’s choice. Names do have a lot of personal meaning.