Tuesday, August 02, 2005

A weird name thing

I have always been under impression that among the civilized classes in Finland people are free to change or not change their names when getting married without inviting disapproval either way. I mean, there are a lot of people with strong feelings one way or the other, but I used to think that everybody agreed that other people should do whatever they please and that it's OK.

Apparently there is an exception. A few people have recently said things that showed that they consider it somehow improper for a married person to still use a last name they got from a previous spouse.

Never ran into this phenomenon anywhere else. I know somebody back in the US who is still using the name of the husband number 2 although she is married to number 5 now. Is it common here to disapprove of married women using ex-husbands' names?

No comments: