[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.8″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Karla||||||||” text_font_size=”18px” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
C<\/span>arrie Underwood might not know her last name after a wild night in Vegas, but if she kept her own, her momma wouldn\u2019t be so ashamed (You\u2019re welcome. That song is now in your head.).<\/span><\/p>\n According to Brides.com<\/span><\/a>, the practice goes back to the Middle Ages, when society began to document laws due to increased literacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, at that time, society also favored men, and women had little rights. The law added the practice of coverture, which is the legal status of a woman under common law. <\/span> In more modern times, women take their husband\u2019s name for many other reasons, including solidifying their status as a couple, separating themselves from their parents, unifying the family when having children or simply for the sake of tradition, according to a <\/span>CNN article<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, some women choose to retain their last name or hyphenate it with their spouse\u2019s.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Keeping their last name is <\/span>growing in popularity among women with higher levels of education and those marrying at an older age, says Deborah Carr, a professor of sociology and director of the Center for Innovation in Social Science at Boston University, in the CNN article.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey have more professional identity built by that point,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n Bottom line: <\/b>While you might feel pressure from your friends or family to take your husband\u2019s last name, it is ultimately up to the two of you to decide. Currently, in the United States, about 20% to 30% of women retain their name, CNN reports.<\/span><\/p>\n To learn more about how brides are \u201cbucking tradition,\u201d read our blogs on <\/span>breaking glass<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>kneeling to propose<\/span><\/a> and\u00a0<\/span>carrying the bride across the threshold<\/span>.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carrie Underwood might not know her last name after a wild night in Vegas, but if she kept her own, her momma wouldn\u2019t be so ashamed (You\u2019re welcome. That song is now in your head.). According to Brides.com, the practice goes back to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[226],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wedding-traditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16909"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16914,"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16909\/revisions\/16914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spedj.com\/spe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span>\u201cCoverture is a legal formation that held that no female person had a legal identity,\u201d Historian Catherine Allgor explains in the Brides.com article. \u201cA female baby was covered by her father\u2019s identity and then, when she was married, by her husband\u2019s.\u201d <\/span>
<\/span>Under coverture, when a woman married, she became \u201cone\u201d with her husband. <\/span>
<\/span>\u201cIt sounds romantic, but the \u2018one\u2019 was the husband,\u201d Allgor says. \u201cShe becomes, and this is the phrase, \u2018legally dead.\u2019 So it\u2019s not that women take the last names of their husbands, which is how we think of it, it\u2019s that they become part of [the husband\u2019s] body.\u00a0She does not exist in law, only the husband does.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n