The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-03-07
MARRIAGE NAMES.
Why Woman Drops Her Name
when She Takes Her Husbnnd's.

husbands names on the wedding day
and forfeit their own forever after?
The cynic's reply that they have little
else to lose and are bound for decor
ums sake to made some small sacri-
flee for the well-meaning man who Of
/ fers up so much for them on the NY
| meneal altar is far too fiippant to be
! considered seriously. The plain truth
| Is that this time-honored custom is one
| of the oldest relies of a barbarous
| epoch, when woman was a mere APP
pendage, She was an integral portion
of the gems or family, now of her faith
er, now of her brother, now of her hus-
band. She had no Independent entity
| of her own. Hence she took over the
surname of her legal protector giving
up that of her father. Names were a
! label indicating ownership, and
! changed accordingly. This is so true
that wherever woman's rights were ac-
knowledged-as was the case among
many wild tribes-the child received
! the mothers name, or the appellation
/ of her gems, not that of the male par
ent, and consequently in war time,
when the two peoples were laying waste
each others territory, fathers and sons
were generally fighting in opposite
camps. Thus the head of the family
| mas always DcSlOMtQ MS name Oh the
| members, and the first outward sign
of female emancipation, when it does
come, will be the maintenance by
Young wives of their maiden names,
with or without the Datronymic of
| their husbands. Why should it not
be so even now? A wife is said to be
her husbands half, very often his bet
ter half. Is it not meet that this rela-
tion should appear in the family name?
of by the masses. In olden times it
was believed to be to a large extent
Identical with the personality of the
bearer. 1t was not to be taken in vain.
| To mention the name of LOhengrin,
for example, was to deprive him of his
| life among mortals. A force, a vir-
tue, a spirit went out of him, and he
ceased to be what he had been. Is it
1 fair that girl should, on taking to
herself a husband, abandon the per-
sonality which is embodied in a name
for the sake of one who possibly would
not cut off his mustachios or give up
smoking for her pleasure? Join names
as you join hands," says a society
formed with this object in Southern
| Hungary.
This proposed dualism of family
names is no unheard-of innovation. 1t
has existed for generations. nay, for
| centuries. In Belgium man and wife
very often unite surnames when they
bind hands and hearts. and double
| barreled" names are as plentiful as
biackberries in autumn. They have
usually a distinguished ring about
them as if they were titles of nobility
| Sometimes they are alarmingly long:
that however is not the fault of the
system, but only of the country 1t
was terrible jawbreaker. for instance,
that was offered to friends of the bride
and bridegroom in the Invitations is
sued by the two families, Vahdenhoog-
| straaten and KinkverVankostdorsp
ingatehdern. When these two sur
names We're welded by a hyphen, bash
full ladies and people iii a hurry never
ventured near the Temptation. Tn Rus
STA the lady's patronymic always diff
fers somewhat from that of her hus-
band. Countess Tolstoi's name for
example, is Tolstaya in the nominal
tive. IT one We're addressing an en-
velope to the married couple her name
would then be Tolstoi and his Tolsto-
moo. AT first sight the Russian ladies
seem to have stolen a march on their
English sisters and to have saved some
appearances of Independence. But
this fancy is illusive.1 In Russian the
family name, when borne by males, is
a substantive, and can stand by itself
when the bearer is a4lady it is a mere
adjective which needs substantive ex-
pressed or understood in order to give
it vitality and existence.
But nowhere is the right of women
to their own dear maiden names so
universally admitted or so strictly en-
forced as in Spain, When a Spanish
don solemnly pledges. his troth to a
smiling girl at the altar he adds her
appellation TO his own and ever after
the two names are linked as indissol-
ubly as the two persons. This blend
is often very picturesque and pleases
fanciful foreigners. But it sometimes
has its drawbacks. The husbands
patronymic is at the, end in the pos
~sessive case, and when it has a mean
ing of it's own may become awkward
Nowadays names are, not as easily
changed as they used to be, when
every continental gentleman who be-
came an author threw aside his Ger
man, Dutch or French patronymic
and assumed Greek, or Latin cogno-
men as Erasmus. Paracelsus and Me-
lanchthon did. At present the clumsy
machinery of the law has to be set in
motion before a surname can be
changed in Germany, Austria and, Hol-
land, and in many cases a fee paid
besides If in Austria a man takes a
room in a hotel for the weekend and
gives a name which does not legally
belong to him, he renders himself Ii
able to Imprisonment And he is sure
to get his due if the truth leaks out
Travelling incognito is a luxury re-
served for dukes and princes there
A man in Central Europe is an heir
loom not to be played with. A girl
takes over not only her husbands sur
name, but also his title, and by this
she is always addressed--Frau Doctor
Frau Professor, Frau Privy Councillor
etc. She must be very poor indeed who
has not some such handle to her name
after marriage. Hence the desire OF
a welded lady to retain her name and
title, even after she has lost him who
conferred both upon her-for instance
after she has been divorced
Germany is interested in this mat
ter just now, because a new law on
the subject is coming into force this
year. Heretofore a lady although di-
vorced on the ground of misconduct
could, and generally did, continue to
bear her late husbands name and IT,
tie. If he objected to this it was open
to him to sue his late spouse for
wrongfulIy appropriating his surname
| and titles, and if the court saw good
grounds for restraining the lady from
SO doing in future it was competent
to issue such a prohibition. But the
costs kept many men from taking adj
vantage of the law. Now the matter
will be much simpler. divorced
wife may use her late husbands name
unless and until he makes a declara-
ton, which costs nothing, to the eff
feet that he wthdraws from her the