Surname issues

In Australia you can keep your existing surname. When I married I changed my surname, so I took his name. I found it very foreign and I had allot of difficulty getting used to it. It didn't flow when I wrote it and I felt like I was tripping over vowels and consonants when I said it. Most of all I felt I had lost my identity and that was difficult for me. Three years later we divorced. It had nothing to do with the surname by the way!

Its the way in the Philippines and I am also going to follow it. I have read that its different with other countries.

Here it is optional, If you want to you are free to keep your name, take both or just change to his. I think I will take my husbands name and also keeo my own when I get married but we will see when we get there =)

Here in the US it is custom to take the husband’s last name and the female drops her maiden name. However it's not mandatory. I know women that have done as in your country, some that just kept there same last name and some that just add it on so it's a first middle maiden and husband's name. In America it's so diverse here, I think we have a bit all of cultures customs.

I think that assuming te name of the husband during marriage started way in the past, in the medieval ages (i think). It symbolizes the exchange of property between the father of the bride to the new owner which is the husband.I know that this sounds silly, but in the past, the status of women in society is low and they are considered as property. That is the reason why when we are born, we carry the name the surname of our father (who he inhereted from his father, from his father's father, and so on). For men, because of their higher status than women, serve as the bearer of the surname of the clan or the family. This explains why many father wanted to have a son more than having a daughter. The women, being property change theier surname during marriage. That method of changing surname reached until this age, but I think that the sybolism is now gone.

Assuming the husband's surname when you get marry, I think signifies the headship of the husband over the wife...

Although there is no rule to change the surname after marriage, generally it is woman who removes her surname, suffixes her husband's name or hsuband's family name to her name.

I live in the Philippines, but has to react on the matter regarding surnames. Our law does not mandate every women to follow the surname of their husband. Yes, it's a fact. The Civil Code of the Philippines, provides, "A married women may use......s..s..s Yes, the law uses the term "may use". Meaning, it's not a mandatory to use the surname of your husband. What the law does not include, it excludes. I am not telling or suggesting you not to use your husband's surname or full name, rather to make a clarification on the issue.

In my country too, women acquire their husband's surname after marriage. But there are few cases where the women have chosen to use both, their earlier as well as their husbands surname after their marriage.

yes, it'a our way of saying that the man is the head of the family, here in the Philippines.. i really got difficulty trying to use my husban's surname when we are newly married because i use my old surname for 23 year in my life then suddenly, in just one day, it wil be changed... but of course, now, when i write my whole name. sometimes, i still write my old surname hehehe.. little by little i'm getting used to it but i see to it that when i write my full name. i also write my ols surname in the middle then i put dash and then the surname of my husband..

In India, women when they get married, usually suffix their husband's surname with their name. Their former surname becomes obsolete and defunct. Some of the modern day wife, use both their previous surname and their husband's surname to keep their identity.

In our country women not only accept their husbands surname but also his name as their middle names. I haven't heard of any culture where men change their names.

I have'nt heard of any culture where in the husband will change his surname after getting married. However, changing surname has become more of a tradition here in the Philippines and in abroad particularly the US. But our law does not oblige women to change their surnames after they marry. It's still left for choice... Keep safety...