An invoice was mailed to me and my boyfriend recently — it was addressed to Catherine and Anthony Deveny.
And yet I have never married, nor changed my surname. Neither has he.
I was repelled. Why, in 2017, do we still assume that a man and a woman who share a home must also share the same name?
It is likely because women are still choosing to take their husband’s surname when they get married.
In Australia, for example, more than 80 per cent of women take their husband’s surname after marriage, while in the United States, a whopping 94 per cent of women do.
Indeed, Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue revealed last week that she, too, plans to take her fiancé’s name when they marry because, she said, “Taking a different name makes a statement”.
“Sasse is a great name,” Minogue said of her partner Joshua’s surname. “Kylie Sasse … is a great stage name. Minogue has never exactly tripped off the tongue.”
But why are women really (and I mean really) choosing to take their husband’s surname when they marry?
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