r/GlobalTalk • u/whoisfourthwall Malaysia • 23d ago
[Question] Do women in your country change their last name for marriage? Question
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u/Moving_around_slowly 22d ago
I'm from Quebec, Canada and it is actually illegal for a woman to take her husband's name in marriage in this province. It's kind of weird if you ask me. They should be allowed to do whatever they want.
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u/Tatem1961 Japan 22d ago
In most cases yes. It's legally required that a married couple have the same family name, and usually it's the wife who changes it. Sometimes the husband will take the wife's family name, usually when they are marrying into the family to takeover a business or craft.
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u/DCChilling610 22d ago
Wow didnāt realize it was a law in Japan. Here in the US itās just cultural norms āenforcingā this.
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u/themadbelgian 22d ago
In Belgium, women don't change their name. They can be called Misses "Husband's last name" but their legal name doesn't change.
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u/whoisfourthwall Malaysia 22d ago
Huh just like over here
always find it very weird that you have to literally change your name for marriage
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u/tojan00 23d ago
Finland: Traditionally yes. Sometimes some use doubles like husband's last name is Doe and wives is Smith, they'll use Doe-Smith (or Smith-Doe). Also not unheard of, that the husband takes the wives last name. Sometimes they just don't change the last names at all.
All in all, marriages are going out of style I think.
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u/SS__Essess 22d ago
And it is also possible to come up with a new surname for both upon marriage. I know a couple who did that.
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u/whoisfourthwall Malaysia 22d ago
When the husband takes the wife's name, is it usually because he is marrying some old money ppl?
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u/AdPsychological1582 22d ago
Same in the case of the most religious countries( 'cause maybe they are closer to tradition) of EU as in Christian Orthodox countries like Romania or Greece.
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u/floating-point- usa 22d ago edited 22d ago
In the US, women traditionally (Anglo-tradition) would lose their maiden name and take the last name of their husband. Today however, each couple decides on their married names. I have 3 sisters and they all did something different when they got married. One went the traditional route, one hyphenated (both husband and wife changed their names to the hyphenated version), and one kept her maiden name as a 'secondary last name' - so [first name] [middle name] [secondary last name] [primary last name] and then she is referred as [first name] [primary last name].
āDouble-barreled namesā (Spanish-tradition) are also super common here.
PS: Another thing we do here is to revive a family surname (often maternal) as a first name for your child. So names like Riley, Shannon, Murphy, Kelly, Connell etc are all common first names here that originated as European last names. Iām not sure if our cousins across the pond do this.
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u/Wild_Marker Argentina 22d ago
Yes and no. It's kind of an old thing these days I think but it was tradition to have a "last name of laste name". So like if miss Juana Fernandez marries Mr JosƩ Smith, she would be "Juana Fernandez de Smith". Guy would still be Smith though, it's only a thing for women.
I'm not sociable enough to know how many people still do that. I know some women like to just keep their name these days.
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u/Christabel1991 22d ago
So basically The Handmade's Tale, but with last names?
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u/Artess It's complicated 22d ago
In Russia and Ukraine it's customary but not mandatory, so some choose to keep their surname, though it's pretty uncommon. Even more rare is for the husband to take the wife's last name, but also possible.
Bonus fact: everyone also has a patronymic, which is their father's name with a special suffix. But while it is the father's name by default, as an adult you can legally change it to whatever you want as long as it fits grammatically.
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u/thinkadrian Sweden šøšŖ 23d ago
Often, but sometimes not - leading to children with dual surnames - and sometimes the man changes their surname instead.
The dual surnames also occurs because all couples donāt get married either. You get plenty of extra rights just for registering that you live together.
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u/whoisfourthwall Malaysia 22d ago
Children here usually take the father's family name but the women don't change their last names.
Depending on race/ethnicity as well
for indians or malays it is usually "son of" for their "surnames"
for chinese it is the family name
i mentioned the three races because they are a huge chunk of the country with the malays being about 65-75 % depending on who you ask
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u/Affectionate-Job-398 22d ago
In Israel women change their last name (as I'm sure someone wrote) but the religious last name of people in Judaism is simply "son/ daughter of their father's first name" so you could say that technically Judaism doesn't change women's last name after marriage.
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u/Christabel1991 22d ago
Also from Israel, and you can make Judaism sound enlightened all you want, but the reality is that no one cares about religious last names since it's not your legal name. Jews have been using traditional non-religious last names for centuries, maybe even millennia. Most women here change their names to their husband's.
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u/Affectionate-Job-398 22d ago
When someone either gets an Aliya to the Torah/ Reads the Torah, he/ she (orthodox "equal" minyans) uses their religious last name. When someone names someone for people to learn and pray for, they use their religious name. In the religious world, religious names are still a thing that is often heard. Not day to day, but still, be in a yeshiva for a week, and you'll hear religious names a lot.
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u/HiHungryImDad2 22d ago
In Germany itās most of the time that the wife takes over the name of the man, but it can also be vice-versa. Also, itās possible to have both names as a wife. If the Wifeās last name is Smith and the manās last name is Miller, she can name herself Smith-Miller.
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u/Chel_of_the_sea SF Bay Area, United States 22d ago
US: Variable. Some women do, some don't. Hyphenated last names (e.g. Smith + Jones becomes Smith-Jones) are fairly common as well.
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u/Lazzen Mexico 23d ago
No, which confused me a lot as if USA citizens were all siblings.
In Mexico and other Spanish descended countries people have 2 surnames/lastnames, one from the mother and one from the father that are then passed down towards their child.