Changing my name - undecided

gayleygoo

Some Irish women, when they get married, do not change their surname to that of their husbands, but change how their maiden name is spelled so that it means something differently. A maiden name will normally mean "daughter of" (bride's father's surname), when she marries it will change to "married daughter of" (still her father's surname). At least that is how my OH explained it, I am still trying to find actual examples in the Irish language. I guess its the same as using Mrs instead of Miss, it's a title change rather than a name change.

I think the changing the name thing is possibly somthing to do with the church i.e. a woman is "owned" by her father until she marries, when she then is "owned" by her husband and the name is changed to show this... Personally I don't like this idea, and I wouldn't change my name if I got married, I would probably use the "Mrs" though.

Mojisola

gayleygoo wrote: »

Some Irish women, when they get married, do not change their surname to that of their husbands, but change how their maiden name is spelled so that it means something differently. A maiden name will normally mean "daughter of" (bride's father's surname), when she marries it will change to "married daughter of" (still her father's surname). At least that is how my OH explained it, I am still trying to find actual examples in the Irish language.

I've never heard of this before! I've done some family research in Ireland and all the women had the same surname as the rest of the family (no "daughter of" prefixes or suffixes) and they took their husband's surname after marriage.

74jax

gayleygoo wrote: »

Some Irish women, when they get married, do not change their surname to that of their husbands, but change how their maiden name is spelled so that it means something differently. A maiden name will normally mean "daughter of" (bride's father's surname), when she marries it will change to "married daughter of" (still her father's surname). At least that is how my OH explained it, I am still trying to find actual examples in the Irish language. I guess its the same as using Mrs instead of Miss, it's a title change rather than a name change.

I think the changing the name thing is possibly somthing to do with the church i.e. a woman is "owned" by her father until she marries, when she then is "owned" by her husband and the name is changed to show this... Personally I don't like this idea, and I wouldn't change my name if I got married, I would probably use the "Mrs" though.

I'm Irish and never heard of this.

Mojisola

gayleygoo wrote: »

Some Irish women, when they get married, do not change their surname to that of their husbands, but change how their maiden name is spelled so that it means something differently. A maiden name will normally mean "daughter of" (bride's father's surname), when she marries it will change to "married daughter of" (still her father's surname). At least that is how my OH explained it, I am still trying to find actual examples in the Irish language.

It looks as if it's something that died out in the 18th century as the English attempted to suppress the Irish language. Are Irish speakers starting to bring back the naming system?

gayleygoo

Mojisola wrote: »

I've never heard of this before! I've done some family research in Ireland and all the women had the same surname as the rest of the family (no "daughter of" prefixes or suffixes) and they took their husband's surname after marriage.

I couldn't quite find what he was talking about, I'll need to ask him again! All I could find out was that an unmarried woman would have changed her title from "N!" to "Bean U!", which translates "daughter of..." to "wife of...", which suggests that many women would have changed their names to their husbands, as it would make sense to say "wife of the descendant of...." rather than "wife of...*woman's father's name*".

I'm sure he told me there was a prefix to mean "married daughter of", rather than "wife of", but if he hadn't made it up completely or misunderstood the translation, it perhaps wasn't widely used. It was rare than everybody in Ireland agreed on anything, including language.

Here's the link to the site I used, if I haven't made any sense on here!

Mojisola

gayleygoo wrote: »

I'm sure he told me there was a prefix to mean "married daughter of", rather than "wife of", but if he hadn't made it up completely or misunderstood the translation, it perhaps wasn't widely used. It was rare than everybody in Ireland agreed on anything, including language.

I found those explanations on the web but I've gone back into the 1700s tracing family and it wasn't used by them or in any other families I've looked at.

cazziebo

Interesting to read the views on here.

I got married 25 years ago (today!) and never changed my name. My two DDs had their fathers' surname. He left when DD2 was a young baby and I felt a strong urge for us to have the same name. I changed their name to my name (he agreed willingly, had he not I might still have gone ahead).

Now getting married in a couple of months and my H2B is just getting used to the idea I won't be changing my name. His family just don't understand it at all... I'm less adamant this time around as nowadays I use my surname so rarely.

Re the Irish names - I'm half Irish and I've never heard of this. Could he not be confusing this with the Icelandic tradition? Magnus's son would be Magnusson, and daughter Magnusdottir. (Magnus being the first name rather than surname of the father).

cgk1

I didn't care either way and my wife kept her own surname, I've never given it a second thought. If you do decide to keep your own name, you'll have to put up with the occasional "Why?"

(which I always replied to with 'why is it any of your business?")