In the traditional sense, when women get married, they change their last name to their husband’s, or hyphenate their names (her last name-his last name). However, switch things around, and it isn’t too easy. Only six states allow men to take their wives’ last name (California is possibly the seventh state). This is posing a problem for married couples, as well as domestic partners. Under most states’ laws, the man must “must petition the court, advertise in a newspaper and pay hundreds of dollars in fees” if he wants his wife’s last name (just a little much?). All a woman has to do is sign the marriage license. Doesn’t the husband have every right to take his wife’s last name?
Though I have to interject an anecdote from my childhood here. When I was in middle school, the principle was Mr. W (I won’t use his full name here). When my youngest brother entered the same middle school, it was Mr. M. However, it was the same man. He didn’t take his wife’s last name…they had combined the two together. So when they got divorced (around the time my little brother entered middle school), he had gone back to his “maiden” name (what would be the masculine word for maiden?). It confused the current students, and the alumni, because it was something we had never seen before. And this was a conservative little town (a.k.a. Stepford).
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