Fun with Hyphens

Just a comment from an S.B. High School alumna, Class of 1968, regarding Maggie Yates’s article in the Wedding Guide on changing one’s surname when getting married.

Interesting article. However, since my husband and I both took each other’s surname five years after we had our lovely S.B. wedding in December 1969, I’ve used the term “birth name” rather than “maiden name” for two reasons: It’s inclusive of all genders, and many women are not “maidens” when they get married!

We and our two daughters enjoyed having a unique surname. My husband was quite obliging to my idea of hyphenating when I said that I missed my birth name after five years of losing my identity as “Mrs. Ron Turner.” We sent out a printed announcement to all who had witnessed our wedding in 1969 and to the family, friends, and work colleagues we had at that time in October 1975.

Back then we used the suggestions from a group called The Center for a Woman’s Own name in Barrington, IL, and received a free legal name change for both of us. The only problem was the young clerk at the DMV who refused to change our names on our licenses, whereupon we asked to speak with her supervisor. We’ve always been glad we hyphenated our last names and only wish we had known we could for our wedding license, which we had changed by going back to the lively S..B Courthouse Marriage Bureau to make it official.

Now from the vantage point of a 74-year-old woman (I was 19 and Ron was two days short of his 21st birthday when we married, so his parents had to sign for him), I’ve never looked back! I wholeheartedly recommend that women either retain their birth names or hyphenate with their husband’s birth surname.