The couple insisted that she changed it because she wanted the same name as Sam's grandmothers.
Many brides still continue to take their husband's last name, but more and more women are starting to keep their own after marriage. While some view it as a custom, some view it as a sign of love.
One of the criticisms against the practice has it signifies a transfer of 'ownership' in a patriarchal system. One adorable couple popular on TikTok and YouTube posted a video of the new bride changing her name and it didn't go down well with some of the viewers. Monica Patterson, previously known as Monica Gartner, changed her name after getting married to Sam Patterson in February. The couple was in a long-distance relationship for six years before finally getting married, reported Insider.
Sam hails from Cheshire, UK, and moved to the US after the pair decided to get married. The couple got married earlier this year at an outdoor ceremony in Long Island in the presence of just 10 guests and their priest's dog-walking group. The couple is already popular on social media with their joint account having more than 2 million followers, and their YouTube channel has more than 650k followers. The couple posted a video titled "Changing Her Last Name" which featured them going through the process of applying to legally change her last name to Patterson.
While the video is adorable, many viewers suspected Monica was caught off guard by the proposal to change her last name, and her expressions at certain moments seemed to suggest she wasn't ready for it or didn't want to change her name. The couple insists that wasn't the case but not everyone is convinced. "How dare he make you change your name?" wrote one person. Some accused Sam of being forceful and a little dominating. Monica said that wasn't the case. "We were so excited about this video. A lot of the comments were great, but there were a lot of people saying things like, 'How dare he make you change your name?' They thought he was forcing me," she said.
Sam said they had spoken about it and she wanted to take his grandma's name. "People kept saying I was forcing her into it. And she's just like, 'No, I just want the same last name as his grandma.'" Monica added that it was a common custom. "I'm sure if I had wanted to keep my last name, we would have had that discussion," she said. "I'm not being forced, I'm not being dominated... I'm so happy."
Taking the husband's name continues to be a popular trend with more than 70% of married women in the US choosing to take their husband's last name in 2015, according to a series of Google Surveys conducted by the New York Times. “It is quite surprising... [so many women adopt the man’s name] since it comes from patriarchal history, from the idea that a woman, on marriage, became one of the man’s possessions,” said Simon Duncan, a professor in family life at the University of Bradford, UK, reported BBC News. He added that it was a custom mainly in English-speaking countries before adding that the concept of "owning" wives was scrapped more than a century ago in Britain and with it ended the legal requirement to take a man's name. Some argued that it signified the start of something new. “It’s part of the romance,” said Corinna Hirsch, a German marketer living in Stockholm, adding that such traditions help them develop a deeper bond.
References:
https://www.insider.com/tiktok-bride-criticized-for-taking-husbands-last-name-2022-4
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/upshot/about-the-maiden-name-analysis.html
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200921-why-do-women-still-change-their-names
Cover Image source: Instagram/samandmonica; YouTube/Sam and Monica
