Married Names: A Fusion of Old and New

This week in class, my peers grappled over the aspect of taking a husband’s last name upon one’s marriage.  In my opinion, the woman has her own prerogative to keep her last name, but she should know, that in staying with her maiden name, she must try harder to keep her marriage afloat than if she had changed her last name.  While I wholeheartedly support Moushumi’s decision to keep her name for professional reasons, she should recognize that this action, however small, displays a lack of connection to Gogol and, intended or not, she seems to not take the marriage seriously. Sighing in disgust and embarrassment will only worsen the rocky ground upon which their marriage began (227).  If Moushumi wants to keep Mazoomdar as her last name, she shall, but then she cannot afford to do petty actions like shaking her head at its misuse, instead she must put in the extra effort at displaying affection to enforce the bond between Gogol and herself.  Personally, unless the rare chance occurs where I have many publications in my maiden name, I plan to change my name when I get married.  I think I will follow in my mother’s footsteps in the way I go about it.  Because she felt an emotional connection to the quite character-inducing mouthful of a maiden name, Hagenbuch, and the family ties that accompanied it, my mom opted to put this maiden name as her middle name and make O’Neil her new last name.  I think this displays a perfect balance between maintaining a connection to childhood and family and showing the new unit that a husband and wife create. For me, that would make my future name four-part because I should not simply abandon the origin of the “Beth” in my name.  I cannot wait for such a lengthy name, as Mrs. Deighan pointed out on Thursday, if I marry a man whose last name begins with a W, my new monogram will read MEOW.  In order to guarantee this comes true, I plan on marrying Andrew Weaver.