I’m noticing a pleasant trend on such sites as Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as in general practice elsewhere. Married and divorced women have begun to use all three names as an identifier. They have begun to use their maiden names as well as their married names. Sometimes they’re hyphenated, sometimes not. I have a few ideas why this is happening, but I’ll keep them to myself for now, so as not to influence the responses.
I’ll be surveying my three-named female friends and contacts in an attempt to ascertain why this phenomenon is taking off so rapidly. The fact that so many women seem to be converting at once is what piqued my curiosity.
So I’ll send out the survey and you ask your friends what’s what, and we’ll see what information shakes out. If you find out something interesting, please let me know. Three-named women, feel free to respond directly.
You’ve got me thinking. (Funny how teachers have a way of doing that) I have a few theories about that, but I don’t want to taint any responses. Let me know when your survey results are in.
I don’t see why it’s such a phenomenon. Women just want to be given credit for the person they have been their whole life and people know them by. To throw away 20+ years of “your personal branding” (i.e. last name) and what is familiar to everyone you have ever met, your peers and your colleagues, is absurd.
I have been married for two years and decided not to change any portion of my name. Not only did I not want to be renamed and have to start the recognition of my name over again, but I didn’t want to go through all of the hassle of filling out “Change of name forms” for every piece of identification. Do you realize what a pain it is to change your drivers license, bank accounts, credit cards, passport, and every single piece of information that recognizes you as your “maiden self”
The tradition is outdated.
I think you are seeing an increase of the multiple names because of all of the social media. Some people know you as one name and other people know you as another.
I personally, wanted to change my name. I had no attachment to my maiden name and it was hard to pronounce and spell (or so I was frequently told).
While social media allows us to have easy access to people that previous generations would not have had, those people also are not actively involved in my life. Because of this, they most likely will only know one name from a point in time of my life.
Divorse is a huge thing in this country. Some people want to ditch the married name ASAP, others want to hold onto it for whatever reason. Then there are remarriages–same thing.
People come and go in your life and they know you “as that person” some times it is who you are (name and personality), other times it is who you were. If you are open to reconnecting with people, you will have to be open to making it easy for people to find you.
What I would be interested in is seeing how the spouses of people who have been married multiple times take to using the multiple names.
All the best and hope this helps
It is because of the social media. When I married for the first time 20 years ago I kept my maiden name and added my husbands name. This was for my career and also because I was “woman hear me roar”. That lasted about 2 months before the double last name became a pain and I dropped my maiden name.
Married women who want to be get back in touch with contacts on LinkedIn and Facebook can’t be found in a search under their maiden names. Unless, as I have done, the maiden name is mentioned in the text. This was an easy fix compared to having to carry 3 names around.
Diana, Social media seems to be the main reason. Plus many people just want to make it easier to be found.
Thanks,
Jay