Amal Alamuddin has changed her name professionally

Maybe Alamuddin was a bugger to spell and everyone always asked not at all why I changed my name

So that's a different decision, Northern, because both of you have done the same.

I don't think you are stupid, by the way, not at all. It is true that name change on marriage is very skewed towards women changing and men not and that is an unequal situation.

Agree with op. I'm disappointed.

Yonic - yes he does. He bought mine, I bought his.

but presumably not all women who change their names are doing so because they are marrying men whose names are more interesting, or easier to spell/pronounce, or more anonymous, or more distinguished, or because they are from an abusive family background and want to break away from that association?

and there are men who may have the same family backgrounds, or be marrying women whose names have the attributes above too, but they aren't choosing to change their names?

Northern

Out of interest, does your DH also wear a ring?

Green, then you took your FIL's name and gave up your father's name, right?

Do you wear a wedding ring OP?
To me that's as much a symbol of a combined life and commitment as sharing a name is (and like a name, I like it, it's become part of me) but I wonder if you see that also as a symbol of my stupidity and coercion?

I don't quite understand what consequence you think will happen. Any consequences happened as soon as they got engaged and she became a household name.

Everyone knows who she is.

Everyone knows who her husband is.

Changing her name won't change that. And I don't see why anyone should think she should become some kind of poster girl for some people's idea of feminism. That's on a par with people saying that Kate Middleton absolutely should breastfeed. It's no-one else's business.

(For what it's worth I know plenty of women in my industry who haven't changed their name on marriage. And plenty who have. They are the same intelligent women before as after, whichever choice they made.)

Maybe she just prefers the simplicity of Clooney? It might not even be any more than that. I chose to take my dhs name mainly because I just thought his name was more interesting - his is foreign sounding and I like it. I don't think it makes me any less of a feminist because I chose to change my name. It's the fact I can choose and I made my own choice that makes me a feminist, not the name I have.

We all have different reasons for changing our name. A friend of mine could not wait to change her name on marriage because she had a toxic relationship with her parents, but, obviously, a great relationship with her husband.

I was a bit skeptical as she had built up a major profile in her field, but she said that it was like breaking free from decades of crap, and she felt lucky that she had the choice.

Would you rather she kept her father's name, even though her relationship with him had broken, rather than choosing to share her new DH's?

we are socialised to believe that this is normal, for women to change their names on marriage but not men. i tend to assume that these days most women are making the choice that works for them at the time (and they can always change back to unmarried name in future if they like). but it is a socially constructed thing, and i think it's legitimate to question that

I have now changed my name by deed poll to Firstname MySurname DHSurname and I use the two surnames without a hyphen.

I did this because I wanted to but partly as a feminist statement.

Nojacket, I double-barrelled when I got married (both names are quite short anyway) but kept my maiden name for academic stuff as my PhD is in my maiden name as are my academic publications. I'm not working in academia just now (through choice) and use my double barrelled name from day to day. It never seems to cause any problems.

i do harbour a small hope that george might take her name too, and they could have been the alamuddin clooneys

Feminism is about equality and the right to choose...The right to choose to be unequal?

I disagree. I did not choose to become unequal, I'm not unequal to my DH because I've started to use his surname. He really couldn't have cared less. I wanted to.

You're forgetting, my name was given to me at birth by my father. I've merely swapped one man's surname for another man's surname. That does not make me unequal. A lesser being even. It's a name. I choose to use a name but I choose to define myself by what I have achieved and done with my life.

I know there's no arguing with you. But please don't assume your opinion is the only opinion, and please don't disrespect women who have made the choice to take their husband's surname.

I will admit that I was 'coerced' by the culture around me.

I married at 25 and I didn't personally know anyone who hadn't changed their name - including friends of my parents etc. To keep one's name wasn't the 'done thing'!

yes, she is clearly stupid. Clearly. I'm sure she won't have thought this out at all.

If she had chosen to keep her name then nobody in her professional circle would have been remotely surprised - so she did have a choice and she's made it. For feminism to be successful we have to accept that a broad church of women will make a broad church of decisions. The news about her name came out at the same time as she was filmed making a high profile business trip. Do you REALLY think her identity is being subsumed by her marriage? Because I don't. The stories about the relationship all mention her physical appearance but they also all mention her profession and her intelligence. In fact I suspect more column inches have been devoted to what she is currently doing professionally than what George is doing.

And how do you know anything about her values? Rather seems like you are projecting your own values onto her life. YABU

i think boutiques would know perfectly well who she was without using clooney. it's not like the marriage hasn't been well-publicised

So your conclusion is that she and all other successful professional women who change their name to their husband's are either stupid or coerced?

How disappointing!

Yes I think it is a feminist issue as a lot of society expect women to change their name.

In 1855 Lucy Stone became the first US woman to not change her name on marriage.

[[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Stone_League ]]

Yes I respect that women make this choice but I would LOVE for it to be totally normal for women to not change their name.

Completely agree Ehric. It is sad that she wants to be known as Mrs Clooney rather than use her own name.

Her surname isn't that great - names with "mu" in them always have a glum sound. Clooney ain't that good either, but it's slightly better.

But the point here is not that she's married Joe Bloggs - she's married flippin' George Clooney! That name opens a lot of (boutique) doors.