smb@achilles.UUCP (09/25/83)
I did not change my name when I got married because I've been known by my name for 30+ years, and I don't feel like changing it. Frankly, it would be a royal pain -- sending out address change notices when I move is annoying enough. (My wife agrees; when I asked her to give a reason why she kept her own name, she replied that it was the path of least resistance.) There are other reasons as well. Professionally, I've been using "Bellovin" for 15 years or so; I don't propose to cancel whatever reputation I have by making it hard for people to associate the current me with the past me. Finally, in a rather primitive sense I regard my name as part of me, almost defining me; to change my name would be to change my personna. (This is a stronger reason for women to refrain from adopting their husband's name than for a couple to decline a hyphenated name: it's one thing to "merge" ones' selves and become a new unit (and kinda nice, in an overly romantic way); it's quite another to surrender one's identity to another.) So -- I will not, under any circumstances, change my name, whether to someone else's name, to a hyphenated name, or to an invented name. By the same token, I will not ask anyone else to change their name on my behalf.
preece@uicsl.UUCP (09/29/83)
#R:achilles:-62600:uicsl:16400022:000:1207 uicsl!preece Sep 28 10:57:00 1983 There are other reasons as well. Professionally, I've been using "Bellovin" for 15 years or so; I don't propose to cancel whatever reputation I have by making it hard for people to associate the current me with the past me. ---------- This is a real problem. I've been involved in the indexing of the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology for several years. In that time we have had to cross reference a number of prominent female researchers whose names have changed by marriage and divorce. There's no way the casual seeker after knowledge is going to tie those women's work together into a single, reputation-building mass. At the very least a woman with a professional reputation should USE her maiden name as a middle name; if the positions were reversed I would probably try to keep my own name. This does, however, lead to confusion in credit matters, leases, introductions, and the like... scott preece pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!preece [As context, my wife did take my name, but uses her maiden name as a middle name; her sister used her maiden name for a long time, switched just before divorcing, then kept the married name until she married again (least resistance, i guess)]
engels@ihuxs.UUCP (10/03/83)
I changed to my husband's name because when applying for a marriage liscense, the woman behind the counter informed me that I would have to fill out several extra forms to keep my own name and it would take several weeks--my wedding was only one week away.