We’ve even convinced young women that keeping their own names when they get married is selfish, damaging to their families, and a social affront. Today only an estimated 8 percent to 10 percent of women in the United States keep their names after marriage, down from a mid-nineties peak of 23 percent. Three in five Americans think that women should take their husbands’ names, and more than half believe it should be enforced legally. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with a woman deciding to change her last name.
