A recent article in The New York Times piqued my interest. It discussed the trend of many young women to keep their maiden name when marrying. Their desire to keep their name was not so much a political statement, the author wrote, but a practical one. Many of the women interviewed stated that were choosing to keep their name so that it would be easier for them to maintain contact with people either professionally or through social media.

Having been married twice, I have twice had to make the choice as to whether to change my name. I wrote a blog a few years ago explaining my reasons as to why I choose to change my last name after each marriage. As a self-proclaimed feminist, I have never thought that the act of choosing to keep one’s name is a feminist undertaking but, rather, having the choice as to whether to do so is crucial. Included in that right is the ability to choose to use both names, i.e. Hillary Rodham Clinton, or using your maiden name professionally and married name personally. Moreover, choosing to have the man change his last name-my college roommate’s husband choose to do many many years ago-is becoming an option that younger people are now choosing, such as Zoe Saldana’s husband.

Given my feminist perspective on this issue, I found The Times observation that it has become a practical consideration rather than a political one intriguing. Did you or spouse change their name upon marriage? Why or why not?