What's in a name

Cross posted at Political Arguments.

Eugene Volokh asks why women take their husband's name when they marry. Most of the comments on his post sound the same refrain: "I want my children to have the same last name as both their parents." (Janine Peterson) "It's just easier, from a child's perspective, to have mommy and daddy have the same name." (Elizabeth Foley) "I know one couple so egalitarian that both spouses took the hyphenated name. Lord only knows what will happen if children of two such marriages marry! A name can stand only so many hyphens." (Michelle Dulak Thomson)

If I may be so bold, I think this is bullshit.

In Spain and every Latin American country, people get along just fine with two—count 'em, two— unhyphenated last names. Women don't go around taking their husband's last name, and the kids have a last name that is different from both of their parents'.

Here's how it works: Juan Pérez López marries María Román García. They have a daughter, Petunia; her full name will be Petunia Pérez Román. Let's say that Petunia grows up and marries Luis Rodríguez Ortiz. Their son, Carlitos, will be Carlitos Rodríguez Pérez.

Carlitos has a paternal and a maternal last name. His paternal last name is his father's paternal last name; his maternal last name is his mother's paternal last name.

¶ Another example. I'm Víctor M. Muñiz-Fraticelli (I hyphenate my name in the US so Americans understand that both are my last name). My Father is Luis Muñiz Argüelles and my Mother is Migdalia Fraticelli Torres. I inherited my father's paternal last name followed by my mother's paternal last name.

Granted, all the last names that are inherited are those of men, so the feminist potential of this system is far from satisfactory. But for our purposes that's beside the point. In the Spanish system husbands, wives and children in the same family all have similar, but different last names, yet the kids suffer no trauma and the institution of the family is going strong.What's clear from a cross-cultural analysis is that changing one's name "for the sake of the children" is completely overblown.