The very simple reason why women should keep their maiden name is because they want to.

If I ever marry, I plan to keep my maiden name and therefore I will. My mother decided she wanted to double barrel her name so that’s what she did. My female cousin decided to change her name. I have a male friend who changed his name when he married, an acquaintance who chose a completely new surname for her and her husband (with his input of course) and I’m sure there are plenty of other options out there.

That’s the great thing about living in a free country, we have choice. There are men and women who are very traditional and if they want to follow the traditional method of the woman changing her name when she married that’s fine. There are others like me who object to it for many reasons and likewise we should be able to keep our maiden name without being judged or criticised.

I can’t tell you why women should keep their maiden names, but I will tell you why I plan on keeping my maiden name.

1. My name is part of who I am. I have had my name for most of my life (I changed it when I was younger and my parents divorced) and it’s a part of my identity. I know that some people think they change when they get married but I don’t plan to. I plan on being exactly the same person as I am now, just with a partner who I love and plan on spending the rest of my life with. So why change my name?

2. Professionally it would cause some confusion. Of course there are plenty of people who retain their maiden name purely for professional purposes so you could still change your name legally and use your maiden name at work.

3. Taking on someone else’s name to me is like a sign of them owning you. I’ve read in some places that the reason why women originally changed their names was to show that they now belonged to their husbands rather than their fathers. I am not a slave, I am not the property of anyone and therefore I will keep my own name and belong to no one but myself. I know that some people would argue that when you marry you belong to each other, that’s not how I personally see marriage but I do wonder why if so many people believe that there aren’t more couples with double barrelled names (and I mean both the man and the woman, not just the woman).

4. I like my surname! I have a great surname, it’s unusual and exotic and I don’t want to change it to something boring and common.

5. My family are the most important thing in the world to me and I feel like I belong with them. When I’m with them I feel completely comfortable and I can be myself. My surname to me is a sign of that family, a group of people who I love and belong with.

I know that there are a lot of very valid arguments that many feminists have put forward for women to not change their name, and I agree with most of them. I am a feminist and as such feel that men and women should be equal. To me that means that either both change their name when they marry or neither do. But I do not like to judge other people or force my beliefs and ideals on them. If women want to change their name then that’s fine with me, but personally I wouldn’t want to.