Why Are We Still Taking Our Husbands' Last Names?  Given the
interest that everyone suddenly has in the vacancy rate of your
uterus, it should come as no surprise that in 2011 (that's 2011,
not 1911), 50% of Americans still believe that a woman should be
legally required to take her husband's last name after marriage.
And because of this, our collective inability to mind our own
damn business, it's still an issue that we continually revisit.
Should married women change their names? Should they not change
their names? Should America get a hobby? Hope you've got your
Judgepants on, because it's time for some judging!  The
tradition of changing one's name, as you've been told a
bazillion times, has its roots in the idea that women give up
their rights to own property and exist as a separate entity from
their husbands when they marry. According to NBC, crappy little
reminders of this law existed into the 1960's and 70's, when
women weren't allowed to get their own credit cards or open
their own bank accounts with