Couples with different surnames are considered loveless

There are rigid conventions when it comes to married names – and women who don’t take their husband’s last name when they marry are seen as less loving partners. This is the result of a study by Kristin Kelley, a researcher at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), according to information published Monday. In the US, it was investigated whether choice of married name influences how heterosexual women and men are perceived as spouses by outsiders.

The sociologist found that women who kept their surname upon marriage were seen by respondents as less devoted, less loving and further removed from the ideal of being wives. This negative assessment therefore also affected women who had chosen a double name after marriage.

Men were also judged less favorably in rejecting tradition, but to a lesser extent than their female partners. For example, men whose wives continue to use their old surnames are considered less committed and loving partners. Men with hyphenated surnames were seen as further removed from the ideal husband, but no less devoted or loving than those whose wives changed their names.

According to the WZB, the research shows that women and men are seen as more loving partners if they adhere to conventional gender-specific norms when choosing a name. “Despite all the advances in equality, couples who violate gender norms continue to be judged worse,” Kelley said.

For her experiment, the sociologist asked more than 500 representatively selected people in the US to rate the name choices of three fictitious married couples. In the first couple, the wife had taken the husband’s surname, in the second couple the husbands had kept their names, and the partners in the third couple had their names with a hyphen. (sda/afp)