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  • Doctor's offices would call at work asking for "Mrs. Lavine," only to be told no such person works there.
  • Frequent flyer cards in the name of "Lavine," failed to coincide with business-related airline tickets in the name of "Liberman," and frequent flyer miles went uncredited.
  • When persons asked for identification, the driver's license-which had a photo-failed to coincide with airline tickets. Fortunately, a hyphenated last name on checks once saved this situation.
  • Plus, the whole issue was a point of argument with the male coauthor of this book.



That's not all that can happen. If you're considering using more than one option, consider the friend of ours who reserved tickets to a Broadway show in a hyphenated name -- her maiden name and her husband's name -- and then forgot. When the couple went to pick up their tickets they mysteriously were nowhere to be found.

Experience incidents like these on a consistent basis and you'll wind up in Bellevue!

A woman's married name affects not only her and her spouse. We've heard of cases in which a spouse's relatives actually were rude because they thought that the woman, who declined to take her husband's name, was not as committed as she should be.



Then, there is the issue of media identification. The New York Times, notes author Peggy Noonan, might have employed one of the strangest style of all-requiring a "Mrs." title on a married woman-even though she has chosen to retain her maiden name.

Name changes can wreak havoc on computer systems. The Social Security Administration in 1996 claimed to have $234 billion worth of wage reports-some dating as far back as 1937-that it was unable to match with individual accounts.

Apart from not knowing what to do with surnames, a report issued by the Social Security Administration's San Bernardino, California district, cited women as being responsible for a large portion of the errors. Women often failed to notify the Social Security Administration when they changed their last names.

Now, the Social Security Administration reports, it has 200 million unresolved wage items in "suspense," representing $250 billion in wages. It suggests that all workers make certain they're getting proper credit for their earnings by requesting a Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement periodically (see phone number and Web site in Chapter 4).

When a Woman Should Keep Her Own Name

Anyone who thinks social traditions are getting more equitable would get a jolt by a Bride's magazine reader survey. The poll revealed that more first-time brides in their 20s are planning to take their husbands' names-87 percent in 1996, compared with 71 percent in 1992.

An American Demographics poll in 1994 indicated that First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton actually had broken tradition. She was among "just 10 percent of married women in the United States who use something other than their husband's last name. Hyphenated names are used by 5 percent of couples, while just 2 percent of married women use their maiden name. About 3 percent, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, who uses her maiden name as a middle name, opt for other alternatives."



The wives who break with tradition are affluent achievers, the poll said. "That's because achievers are professionals who have worked hard to establish their names in their fields. Other women who keep their own names are in the "fulfilled" group-individualists who view the custom of taking a husband's name as outdated.

Women who marry younger are more likely to use nontraditional last names-14 percent of those under 40 compared with 5 percent for women 50 or older. Women with higher education and incomes are more likely to take a nontraditional name.

Meanwhile, NOW reports that children currently are adopting parents' hyphenated surnames. Also, some parents have named boys with their father's surnames and girls with their mothers'.

Instances in which women might want to retain their own names:

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