I think whether a woman takes her husband's name is dependent on a number of factors. A lot of professional woman, do not take their husband's name as it effectively means that their name is no longer known on professional networks and so on. When I married I kept my own name at work, for those reasons. Some women compromise by adding their husband's name to their own.
Some women are more likely to take their husband's name if they have children, as it saves always having to explain the relationship, not that they should have to.
Essentially, it's down to personal choice and preference. It's only a convention that the woman takes the husband's name, nothing more.
I once knew a guy at work who rejoiced in the surname, Bottom! Pressure from his wife and children meant that the whole family instead took his wife's/father-in-law's name!
A friend of mine's surname was Smellie, pronounced Smillie, of course! As you can imagine, it wasn't a name she was particularly keen to hang onto, and when she chose to marry a Mr Brown, the double-barrelled option wasn't particularly attractive either...
When I got married I didn't change my name. My husband and I have an unfortunate coincidence of having the same surname, so the option of changing name wasn't really open unless I wanted to choose something completely different.
We checked back into the history of our families before we started dating and found there were no links to at least four generations back.
I have had people thinking that I hadn't understood their maiden name question. I find the whole thing amusing. It's easier now that we're married though. We used to get lots of questions before and had to do a little explanation run every time. I remember when we bought our home and were unmarried. The bank assumed we were brother and sister until we set them straight.
Actually my grandfather took his mother's name, but that was because he was illegitimate. So my family history has a weird change there.
That's interesting about the Iceland names. I've heard that it was an English tradition to have surnames according to profession (ie. Smith, Cooper, Taylor, Tanner etc) or just as Icelandic names so and so's son (ie. Johnson, Thomson, Jackon etc).
I changed my surname to my mother's maiden name when I was 20, for reasons I'll not go into. My significant other was adopted as a teen, and changed her name to her adopted father's name in her 20s out of love and gratitude. We have been together for 16 yrs, and are not married (her choice). Our son has a hyphenated surname. His mother's name is first. We chose to follow the traditional Mexican practice of "mother's surname - father's surname" for the symbolism that we are equal partners in his care and life (not because either of us is Mexican.) Well, that, and it sounded better with her surname first anyway.
I would hypenate... I like my name. The wife can take on my name, bah...
Hypenate. And hypenate the kids' names too...
I did not take my husbands name.I didn't marry until I was 38. I would never consider hyphenating.
M wrote ...people throwing rice(to wish them fertility but really kills birds.)I wanted to mention that in my area many people choose to not throw rice or they throw birdseed as an alternative.
How is cutting the cake a symbol of virginity?
Both are obviously biased, unhelpful, inflamatory, stupid and insulting.
Warkminter, this was a friendly, fun thread. While I appreciate that you dislike Louise, to come into a fun thread that is harmless and interesting and bring it down with comments like I listed above, is just trying to feed arguments and malcontent. Give it a rest. Frankly, the site needs less of it.
Agreed. Everyone's fairly aware of the extent to which I dislike Louise, and how much I've done to try to get her off the site, but by attacking threads like these, you make her look reasonable, as well as encouraging her to come back online and debate.
Attack the threads where she says it's okay if disabled people starve to death, or says that ugly people are an eyesore. Other than that, it's best just to leave it.
Seems he doesn't jiggerqua either.
or me for that matter - expect some abuse to follow.
I've been busy Korrigan - catch up soon.
Lucie, I didn't appreciate WarkMinter trying to stir up a fight, and I don't appreciate you trying to do it either. This was resolved. Let it stay resolved.
Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!
Let's not
"You sold my dead bird to a blind kid?"
"Harrrrrryyyyyyy... I took care of it " *sniggers*
Actually, it is quite strange to see these old traditions and actually read the slightly um (brain cells have been killed off somewhat)... patriarchal bias behind them. I always just thought wedding cake was vile, with fruit and marzipan.
When I get married, I will have a three tier birthday cake, which is infinitely superior to the nasty taste of wedding cake, and there will be two little brides on the top of it. I have few female friends so I actually have to have a best man. That lucky girl... she thought she'd escaped the stag night, the embarrassing stories of a half-wasted guy reading a speech from a crumpled bit of paper, and didn't have to sit at the head table with two fingers on either side of her nose, with her eyes closed, wondering "this is what my future life is like"... I keep it traditional fuh muh woman 
On the topic of throw another shrimp on the Barbie, back in 2005 I entered a fun little competition with the theme 'Far Out' and EZ and I created this -
Nah. I didn't really expect to though. I probably should have put effort into making it look professional editing wise, but I just did it for fun. My favourite bit was doing all the Barbie and prawn intimate clips in the border.