Amal Alamuddin has changed her name professionally

I don't understand that my name is my father's name argument at all. It is my name from birth. It's what everyone knows me as in school, at university. It's not my father's name, it is my surname, my identity. It just so happens I was given my father's surname. I could have been given mums, or it could have been hyphenated. It doesn't matter. To me, getting married doesn't change who I am. It's just that simple.

Rivertam I totally agree with you.

This really annoys me, I took my husbands name when we married and the vast majority of my friends and family have done the same.
It's ridiculous to think we're all stupid and unequal to our husbands. As well as being highly insulting.
The fact that we all made the free choice to do what we wanted with our names when we marred is the important thing.

It is her choice, but that choice is made in the context of it being the norm for women to take their husband's name, but not for men to ever take their wife's name.

well, obviously it sends that message to you, but it wouldn't occur to me to ever think that about any woman who did this. You're attaching your views onto her choice.

Men's names are their father's names too.
Why don't 50% of married men take their wives' names??
Why is it so unusual as to be almost unheard of for a man to take his wife's name on marriage?
Don't tell me that's not as feminist issue.

I changed my surname on marriage because I had a very unusual maiden name (and an unusual forename) and my husband has a much more common surname. I was bullied at school and still lived in the area I grew up in. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to experience other people having the same name as me, to have some anonymity. For people to say 'oh, do you know Jane Smith?' and for it not to always be me. (not my real name obviously!)

I was sad to say goodbye to my old name but it has been a very positive experience for me to escape it. If I hadn't had such an unusual birth name, I probably would have kept it. My husband wouldn't have cared if I'd kept it.

It's a shame that I'm judged for making a decision that made my life much easier.

Novice, do you think some choices are more feminist than others?

Yy hermit - even if their mother had that (post-marriage) surname from before their birth, it's never described as their mother's name.

River, I'm disappointed because I think its a crying shame that in 2014, a successful financially independent woman (any woman in fact) ditches the name she has used all her life to take on the name of the man she married. It absolutely sends a message that she is a part of him and that he is the 'head' of their relationship. There's nothing 'shared' about it - if they had double barrelled I could see a case for it but as far as I know, he is keeping his name while she has changed hers. I would feel the same if he had changed to Alamuddin, but of course that would never happen and a lot of people would find it ridiculous if it did.

This makes me so sad. I took my husband's name. I'm a professional, known internationally in my field, and everyone I collaborate with seems to have sufficient intelligence to cope with my name change.

Having said that, some of the oldest establishments in the world are actually far more in keeping with modern traditions. My PhD from Cambridge was awarded in my maiden name, so technically I am not allowed to call myself Dr Married Name (although I do, daily).

I don't think discussing what she has done is wrong. I think calling her stupid and coerced is.

PPs have mentioned their surname as 'belonging' to their father.

When does a woman get to own her surname? After 20 years? 30? 40? Or is it always someone elses (a male's)?

My mother changed her name when she married at 18. By the time I came along 20 years later, she'd used 'his' name longer than the one she was born with. So was I given my parents' name, or just my dad's?

I didn't change my name when I got married. As far as I'm concerned, its MY name and my identity, regardless of who had it first.

can all of those saying 'disappointed' please explain why they think Amal should be doing what they think she should be doing? What right has anyone to be disappointed in her? Just because someone becomes a public figure by virtue of their spouse should not mean their every bloody move should be up for scrutiny. Unless you subscribe to the DM's way of thinking, of course.

Agree Ehric and Laurie - a man's name never gets called his father's name, its his own name. It should be the same for women.

This is what can piss me off about the feminism section. People who think that they know feminism better than everyone else and so it's okay to call another woman stupid, not feminist enough and question her choices.

I don't give a crap what anyone else does as long as it is their choice and they realise they have a choice. I would rather spend my energies on teaching dd this. And again, I say this as someone who didn't change their name.

I have to disagree with your surname being your 'fathers' name - if you've lived with a name your whole life it's your name.

i think it's ok to challenge women on their individual choices that may or may not have been made with outside influence. not in a "you're a shit feminist" or "you're a shit woman" way, obviously, but none of us makes choices in a vacuum, and despite the relative privilege and freedom of educated white women in the western world even they are subject to socialisation and pressure from outside forces

i'm not talking about grilling women who don't want to engage in conversations about their lives and the paths they have taken, but there isn't anything wrong with exploring the reasons behind why an individual woman might have made a decision that is not a feminist one if she wants to engage on that (note i am talking about non-feminist decisions, not anti-feminist decisions). because it is those "individual choices" that add up to an unequal picture overall.

Farmyard, Amal is an international lawyer, right? I imagine in some languages Clooney (Clueknee? Clus-né?) also needs spelling out..

Disappointed too. Her of all people.

Well, I disagree with the OP that women who change their names are stupid or coerced.

But not all choices women make are feminist choices. I depilate, I acknowledge it's not a feminist choice.

Yonic, yes it is a unequal situation that more women change their name than men. It is interesting to speculate why, maybe because it is still an unusual thing to do and people as a whole tend not to do socially unusual things, maybe men as less likely to associate their name emotionally with poor family relationships, and maybe because as a society it is still perceived as less acceptable for men to do things associated with women than vice versa. The latter is a clearly feminist issue and needs to be addressed. But attacking women who change their name will not achieve this and is classic misdirection. All that achieves is to piss women off as the reasons for attacking them don't resonate with why they made their choice. This potentially alienates them from feminism.