Changing name after divorce - publications etc

[ostrom]

Hello all,

I was wanting advice/perspective on returning to my maiden name following my divorce. Is this possible? Is it a done thing or do I just need to accept in my academic life I will have that name?

Some background - my academic level is senior post-doc and I have 10 publications under my married name. My first publication was accepted two weeks after getting married, and in the excitement of the wedding, first publication etc and at the time discussion with senior female colleagues who regretted not taking their husbands name this is why I didn't keep my maiden name.

I don't think there's a right or a wrong here, but there's no doubt that it would be easier for you to keep with your married name in terms of people recognizing you. However, if psychologically this is going to be damaging going forward, I guess you could start under your new name if you are planning on having a long career, and simply add a note on your CV to let anyone know that (Brown, 2010) is the same person as (Goddard, 2010). If you are going to make this move, I guess the sooner the better as well.

Difficult one, I kept my own name and never changed it on marriage, but my family refer to me as my married name and I do get a mish-mash of Dr/Miss/Mrs Different Names. I didn't change my name as my husband also was Dr Popping and I thought it would be confusing if we both had the same name.

I know a few people who’ve done this - one quite senior person in my field.

I know someone who had at least 3 names on her publication record - maiden, first marriage, second marriage - and it seemed fine; she definitely got to a high place in her field. I think it may be even easier nowadays with things like Orchid IDs keeping all your work together.

Thanks for your replies so far. This has certainly reassured me that returning to my maiden name is the right thing for me to do.