In American culture, the status quo for women is for them to take their husband’s last name, though the reasoning is not only cultural.

Women taking their husband’s name has a deep historical background, said Sociology Professor Amber Paulk.  

“When you look back at the history of marriage as an institution, women were considered property,” Paulk said. “They were moving from a father’s home to a husband’s home. It would make total sense for them to take their husband’s name.”

The meaning behind women being property extends to the type of structure a culture has. Male-dominated cultures have been the most common throughout history, Paulk said. 

“Most cultures were founded with a patriarchal structure where men dominated the economics,” Paulk said. “It’s fairly recent that women have been able to change positions in society. Women have only been allowed to vote in the United States for less than a hundred years.”

However, some cultures are women-dominated. These cultures are more rare in today’s society, she said.

“There are some societies which are matriarchal, where women are the head of the household,” Paulk said. “In some older Native American cultures you lived with your mom, and then when you got married you went to your wife’s home.”

In today’s society of civil rights, women now have choices as to what they will do with their last name once married. Some women decide to keep their maiden names, she said.

“It’s very common in professional fields for women to keep their last names,” Paulk said. “You see it with faculty members, lawyers, doctors and other professional careers.”

There are also the options of hyphenating the wife and husband’s last names, as well as combining both names to create an alternative last name. Paulk said she believes women choose these options as a way to retain selfhood. 

“A lot of women have decided that professionally they want to maintain a certain identity,” Paulk said. “They don’t want to go and blindly follow tradition.” 

The hyphenation of names tends to confuse some onlookers, leading them to wonder if the children of a woman with a hyphenated name will also have hyphenated last names. 

“Even in families where the woman hyphenates her last name, traditionally the children don’t take on hyphenated last names,” Paulk said. “No one wants to confuse the children, or for them to have a difficult time learning how to spell their name.”

 Allison Shelton, a junior, said she plans to take her husband’s name when she gets married.

“I want to have his name out of tradition,” Shelton said. “My children will have his name, so I want to also have that name.

“I think that the history of women taking the man’s last name is a little misogynistic. I’m a firm believer that with marriage you ‘leave to cleave,’ but you don’t really get that from a guy’s perspective, with him keeping his last name.”

Todd Erickson, a freshman, said he hopes the woman he marries takes his last name, but it would not be a deal-breaker if she does not.

“I would still marry her, even if she didn’t take my last name,” Erickson said. “Marriage is about whether or not you love someone.” 

However, an alternative compromise with last names is not something Erickson said he would prefer.

“I think combining two last names into one name is tacky,” Erickson said. “Hyphenated names are better, but I like it when a woman changes her middle name to her maiden name.”