More Women Are Changing Their Names After Marriage

You would think with all of the feminine movement happening lately, that women would either not be getting married, or would be getting married on their own terms. I personally know that out of the women that I’m familiar with, a lot of them are choosing to keep their own names.

Or are they? To some, changing your last name to your husband’s is an old fashioned practice, but apparently, to the majority, it’s not. A recent poll by YouGov showed that a full 61 percent of respondents—which included women and men—said women should take their husband’s last names, while less then half said a man should be allowed to take his wife’s instead (and 34 percent said men should not be allowed to do so).

This survey was only of around 1,000 people, so who knows: but the respondents’ sentiments seem to match those of another study, where 19,000 women (surveyed by TheKnot in 2011) said that only eight percent of just-married women decided to not change their last names.

This number was actually a drop, from the 90s, where 23 percent of women reported retaining their maiden names. Interesting, I would have thing it would be the other way around.

Personally, I always imagined changing my last name to my husband’s, and I don’t think that this makes me any less of a strong or motivated woman. What do you guys think?

Ally Batista | Elite.

Twitter: @allybatista

Photo Credit: Getty Images