The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-11-20
Reform i'm Women's Names.

here to us. We propose to raise the
rates..
Reform i'm WOmen's Names.
Charles Dudley Warner, in Harper's Magazine.
So many women are about to change
their names Gas result of the summer
campaign, let US suppose and hope) that
it is proper to make suggestion in re
gard to baptismal and married appella-
tions. 1t cannot escape the observa-
tion of the most careless that the names
of women, standing for distinct entities
in the world, are daily becoming of
more importance. Woman, in the mass,
has always been regarded with favor,
and her position in the economy of life
has been cheerfully acknowledged, but
her distinctive individuality in public
! way has not been much insisted on.
Since women write our books, and teach
our schools and practice our laws, and
ride in gigs, and send our messages by
telegraph, and 'hello' from one end OF
the country to the other through the
tele ephone, and write after their names
M. D., and "A. B.. and "A. NJ, and
nearly all the letters of the alphabet,
and even Ill. D. thanks to the Smitn
College appreciation of Miss Amelia B.
Edwards-it is necessary that woman
should have a name that will be inalien-
able and her own through life. Of
course the time may come when the re-
lations of the sexes before the public
will be reversed, and man will have to
fight for his name. Revolutions are
said not to revolve backward, and a
witty Fighter of wrongs has already de-
clared that she will never be satisfied
with the position of her sex until she
can go into graveyard and read on a
head-stone some such sentiment as this,
'Here lies Samuel Johnson, relict of
Mary Johnson.
Now, however good a woman's name
may be, she is in danger-except, they
say, in Massachusetts-of losing it, and
commonly in the change she blots out
all traces of her former existence and
even identity. In royal and noble fami-
lies the attempt has been made to pile
on so many names upon the female in
fant that some of them should stick
through life, and we have to some ex-
tent initiated this in our republic by
giving girls two and three names, some
times string of very pretty appellations
taken out of novels; and especially if
the child is poor, she will be rich in
names. This is all very we'll SO long as
the girl remains Clarissa Elvira Euphe-
mia Hoskins; but when it would be-
come Clarissa Elvira Euphemia Hoskins
Pond, it is too much, and either the
surname or some of the baptismal names
have to be thrown overheard.
All these and many other inconveni
ences can be avoided, and the personal
identity of woman be secured through
all -ci--Sooo, oy a very simple device. In
the first place, give the girl in baptism
only one name. She will be perfectly
content with it. Her lover never re-
quires, never uses, but one other names,
if she has half dozen. In the height
of his tenderness he never says, amelia
Jane, come to my arms! He simply
extends his arms and cries, Jane! In
the second place, when the girl marries
let her always keep her surname. Then,
whenever we see woman's name, we
shall know whether she is married or
single; and if she is married, we shall
know what her family name is. If she
has earned reputation as writer or
doctor or an IL. D. as Mary Brown,
she will carry that with her as Mary
Brown Johnson; and in all cases there
will be spared an infinite amount of talk
and inquiry as to who she was before
she was married. This system is essen
tial to the cause of woman. 1t may
be said that it lacks perfection in two
respects: we could not tell from the
three names whether the bearer of them
might not be widow; and it makes no
provision for second marriage. These
are delicate questions. In regard to the
first, it is nobody's business to know
whether the woman is or is not widow,
unless she chooses to make that fact
prominent, and then she has ways enough
to emphasize it. And in tine second
place Gin case the woman does not marry
her Deceased Husbands Brother, by
permission of Congress- } it does not at
all matter what becomes of the name OF
the first husband. 1t is the woman's
identity that is to be preserved. And
she cannot be required to set up mile
stones all along her life.