There are three situations where I think this is acceptable. 1. The bride's family has no male children to carry on the family name and the groom's family has more than one son. 2. The bride's new name would be very unaesthetic. 3. The bride feels like it. In other words, I think it's kind of outdated but some sort of rule has to be in place. Perhaps the Spanish and German traditions of extended names is the best approach. I, personally would not be offended if my wife did not take my surname, since I have brothers, but this does create a problem in naming children.

i wouldn't be insulted its not that big of a deal, but i there is alot of pride in our name because we have a long line of genius's and muscil heads so i might think that it would be litle degrading to our name. but i personaly dont care, its your name u do what you want with it.

I'm a woman, but let me give some insite from our side. It's not meant as an insult to the groom. In today's world more women find their identity just as important as the man does. And changing her name might make her feel like she's losing herself. There's also the fact that more women are in the work place and changing her name might make it more difficult from a corporate stand point. I didn't change my name when I got married and it was from a slight I recieved from my ex-husband. When we discussed the whole issue I wanted him to add my last name to his as a middle name as that was what I was going to do. He told me his name was too important to change. And that settled that rather quickly. Now, when I was going to marry my fiancee who passed I was going to hyphenate my name. Why? Because when we discussed it he was very understanding of my attchment to my name and was willing to deal with me not changing it. And both of my sons carry their fathers' last names, not mine. I gave them my family middle name instead. You have to remeber you're marring this person not to give them you're name, but because you love them. The name should not matter.

You identify yourself by your name? Silly girl.

im not a man... but i would love my partner to take my last name... rather then i take his. THere are a couple of reasons, but the main one is the fact that i am an only female child, and he has 2 brothers to carry on the family name. and in all honsety my first name sounds silly with his last name... and his first name just seems to fit with my last name. but in the end it is a decision that has to be made when the time comes. and im not really going to argue just over a name

If you're planning to have children, whose name do they get? I thnk it helps give a sense of unity to a family to have a family name.

Why bother being married? Certainly nothing in it (99% of the time) for a man anyway. Keep your name and stay unmarried, unless you wish to enjoy all the one-sided contractual goodies entitled to women when marriage fails, in which case take his name AND his alimony! Half of all marriages end in divorce in this country presently (2/3 of them in Southern California).

I almost took my wife's last name, I didn't want to be known by my father's last name any more, but at the time the paperwork was somewhat prohibitive. Not because it was complicated and expensive, but because we just wanted to be married and have all of the legal stuff out of the way as fast as possible. I'm still not dead set against changing it at some point. It is not an insult to me at all.

I wouldnt be upset about it. It's only a name. So shes independent. It isnt the end of the world. Have you asked her why she wont take your name? I'd be interested to hear her response.

Honestly, I would like for my hypothetical spouse to take my last name, or at least go by it if it's not legally changed to that effect. But like anything in relationships, it's not a good idea to be totally rigid about anything, there is almost always a way to compromise between what both parties want. Perhaps you could just discuss ALL the potential options with your future bride, you may come up with a solution that you both can live with.

I am not married, but if I were to get married I would be very proud of an independently minded woman who chose to keep her maiden name. Absolutely!

I never thought my identity was linked to my name. Maybe my first name, but essentially my person is who I am. And when I got married I gladly took on his name since I became a different person then. My maiden name was my childhood name. To me, that was independence, from my parents, not from a spouse. I don't want to be independent from him since we are a team and I want to feel part of that team, that oneness. But I understand some people aren't like that. I think it's a wonderful thing when people take on both names, hyphenated. But to just keep your maiden name to me, feels like you haven't changed into a different person, a married person.

My husband did not ask me if I was going to take his last name. He asked me what last name I would choose to have after we married. He would not have been insulted, angry, or called off the wedding. He would probably have told me the reasons why it meant a lot to him for me to do so. (He had been the only one in his family with that last name since he was ten years old. His father died when he was only a few months old. He had no siblings. His mother took his step-father's last name when she married him.) He would not have insisted. It was 100% my decision and would have been honored no matter what I chose.

I wouldn't marry someone who didn't think enough of me to become a truly united family by taking my name. It's a nice tradition and ensures that everybody in the family has the same name.

If a woman doesn't want to take her husband's name, to me it shows her lack of trust in him, to be faithful and the leader in the family, and it shows a lack of family unity, when she'll have a different last name than her husband and future children. She's just being selfish at that point.