Women who keep their married name YEARS after the divorce.

Gloomendoom

I think my wife wanted to take my name on marriage because it was a public statement that I was now under her control.

missbiggles1

notanewuser wrote: »

Obviously. But neither of those titles infer gender.

Naturally, that's why we have Mr and Ms for those without those distinctions.

becominganobsessivesaver

I knew someone who kept her ex's name and then remarried. The new couple double-barrelled surnames so the new husband ended up with the ex's surname in front of his own :rotfl:

missbiggles1

Andypandyboy wrote: »

I would imagine your birth name came down the male side though?

You missed my post about my illegitimate father.;)

missbiggles1

Lily-Rose wrote: »

Hi Miss B.

I am roughly your generation (I was born in the early 60s,) I married in the 80s, and don't know one single woman who was in my generation who kept her maiden name when she got married. I especially definitely don't know any woman married in the 70s, who kept her maiden name. It was definitely not the 'done' thing.

How strange that you know many who did keep their maiden name. As I say, I don't know anyone at all; especially not from people married in the 70s and 80s. I would have thought that maybe a woman who was say in her 30s and was a professional (like a solicitor or suchlike) may have wanted to keep her name, but that would have been rare in those days.

Not sure why you know many, and I know none...Maybe it depends on where you live?

Me personally; I have been married around a quarter of a century, and everyone knows me by my married name, and my daughter has the name (of course,) so I think I would probably just keep it now. If I had got married and divorced quite quickly and not had kids, then I would not have kept it.

Most of my friends were (and still are) feminists - that's probably the reason for the difference.

Gloomendoom

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Most of my friends were (and still are) feminists - that's probably the reason for the difference.

Which explains why what you regard as normal is very probably a bit odd in the context of the population as a whole.

tea_lover

Wow, that's patronising! There's many ways of being a feminist. The vast majority of people I know think a name is just a name. Some have changed on marriage, some haven't, some have both changed, some have double-barrelled.

Whenever this is discussed on mse it comes across that a lot of the people who don't change their name really look down on those who do.

ETA: in response to miss biggles

missbiggles1

Gloomendoom wrote: »

Which explains why what you regard as normal is very probably a bit odd in the context of the population as a whole.

Unfortunately, you may well be right, although that wouldn't've been as true in the 70s as it is now.:(

maman

swingaloo wrote: »

I was married for 20+ years and after my divorce kept my married name.

Ive now remarried and still use the same name. I married at 20 so my name has been my name for the last 40+ years and I see no reason to change now. My new husband has no issue with it.

Much the same here. Although I remarried years ago my former married name became my 'brand name' in my career so I kept it. Also, to begin with, because DD1 was still at school and back in the day it wasn't so common for parents and children to have different names.


It's quite useful for cold callers. If they use what they guess to be my married name I can tell they don't know me.

theoretica

Historically, women remained Mrs Married after divorce - think Mrs Simpson. The marriage had happened, though now dissolved. If the marriage was annulled the woman would again be Miss Maiden. Women reverting to their maiden name on divorce is, like keeping a maiden name on marriage, a relatively new thing.