Margot Mifflin Looks at the Long History of Married Names

January 7, 2026

Journalist, social historian, and Professor of English Margot Mifflin published a feature in JSTOR Daily examining the once-standard practice of women changing their names after marriage.

Beginning with suffragist Lucy Stone in the 1850s, who kept her family name, Mifflin traces the legal, social, and political ramifications women have encountered when retaining—or changing—their names over the past 170 years.

“Name changing has never quite shaken its patriarchal roots,” she writes, noting that the practice can reinforce inequities women have fought to remedy since the first wave of feminism, when activists pushed for legal identity and voting rights in the 1800s. For example, a woman’s prior professional accomplishments may be obscured after she marries, or her surname may disappear from use while her husband’s continues through subsequent generations. “If women simply held onto their names," Mifflin argues, "their lineage (and in many cases their racial and ethnic birthright) could be documented along with their husbands'.”

Ultimately, a name may not only influence how others see us, but how we see ourselves.

Read the whole article here.

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Thursday, January 8, 2026

Margot Mifflin Looks at the Long History of Married Names