Nanda
Polyanna
Before I was married, my partner used to insist upon the fact that when we got married, he wanted me to change my last name to his. While an atheist, he was raised in a very traditional Portuguese, Roman Catholic family, and that's "just how things were done." I, on the other hand, was raised an atheist, in a very non-traditional family, where my mother was the head of the household, and while she had changed her name to my fathers, many of her sisters had chosen not to when they married. I was insistant on keeping my last name when we married. My partner and I bickered back and forth about this for years, but ultimately, I won out, and I think mainly because I posed this question: "Why don't you change your name to mine when we marry?" He didn't want to. "Why not?" I asked, "Then we'll have the same last name, just like you want. There will be no question that we're married, no confusion over whose last name to give the children." After much discussion, he really couldn't come up with a good reason not to change his name to mine other than the fact that he just didn't want to, and if that reason was good enough for him to keep his name, it was good enough for me to keep mine.
So, now I pose the question to the men of RF: Would you change your last name to your wife's if she asked you to? And if not, what are your reasons? Would you expect her to change her last name to yours? Why, or why not?
So, now I pose the question to the men of RF: Would you change your last name to your wife's if she asked you to? And if not, what are your reasons? Would you expect her to change her last name to yours? Why, or why not?