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在我们的印象中，西方妇女在婚后会把自己的姓改成夫姓。如今，女权运动已经蔚然成风，那么，今天的妇女婚后还会改自己的姓吗？
先来看一组调查In the US, most women adopt their husband’s family name when they get married – around 70%, according to one of the largest data analyses in recent years. For British women, the figure is almost 90%, according to a 2016 survey, with around 85% of those aged between 18 and 30 saying they still follow the practice. Although these figures are lower than they were a generation ago, it’s clear it remains a strong cultural norm in large parts of the western world, despite today’s more individualistic and gender aware era.. While definitions of feminism vary, 68% of women under 30 describe themselves as feminists in the US and around 60% in the UK.
这一段的大意是，虽然和以前相比情况有了一些变化，但今天的美国妇女婚后仍有70%，英国妇女有90%会从夫姓。这组数字是在有68%的美国30岁以下的妇女宣称自己是女权主义者的背景下出现的。（在英国的同年龄组，这个比例是60%。）
换句话来解读：即使今天过半数的英美年轻妇女宣称自己是女权主义者，也不影响她们婚后从夫姓。
把目光放宽一点，看看欧洲的情况。Much of western Europe also follows the same pattern (notable exceptions include Spain and Iceland, where women tend to keep their birth names when they marry, and Greece, which has made it a legal requirement for wives to retain their names for life since 1983). Even in Norway, which is regularly ranked one of the top countries for gender equality and has a less overtly patriarchal history, the majority of married women still take their husband’s name. There, however, around half of name-takers keep their maiden name as a middle name, which functions as a secondary surname. 在欧洲，除了西班牙、冰岛和希腊，其余的国家的妇女大多婚后从夫姓。即使在最强调男女平等的挪威，这个比例也超过一半。也有一种变通做法，即从夫姓的同时，仍保留婚前姓氏，即把娘家姓做为第二姓。
对于反对从夫姓的人来说，从夫姓等于把妇女视作男人的财产……男人“拥有女人”……这一切积习已久……会让夫权成为一种默认设置，丈夫依然高高在上、当家作主（that a woman, on marriage, became one of the man’s possessions…“owning” wives… “entrenched” in most English-speaking countries… It perpetuates the idea that the husband’s in authority... reproducing the tradition that the man is the head of the household）虽然没有法律规定女人婚后必须从夫姓（ there is currently no legal requirement to take a man’s name）。
从夫姓，历来被看成是父权社会的习惯（patriarchal history）。那为什么在父权、夫权日渐式微的情况下，仍有多少人对此“依依不舍”？我们来看几种解释：
一种女人认为，从夫姓是一种无害的传统（just a harmless tradition），而且夫妻二人共有一姓，将来的孩子（们）也用这一姓，会让一家人有共同的承诺，有助于增加家庭成员彼此紧密的联系（the sense that having the same name as your partner symbolises commitment, and this ties you and any potential children together as a unit.）即使这确实带着父权社会的印迹，但是也是一种传承……父亲将女儿交到未来的女婿手上，后者前来求婚……这形成了最佳的“婚姻组合包”中的一个部分（fathers giving away brides and men being more likely to propose... these elements have come to form part of the optimum “marriage package” for many couples. ）对一些妇女来说，这与婚礼一样，会加强她们和自己夫君的紧密联系(deeper bond)。
另外一种坚持从夫姓的理由与社会公共观感有关：夫妻二人共一姓，是坚守一个社会的承诺和彼此一致来面对外部世界。The second core trend observed by Duncan’s team is more about public perceptions. They concluded that taking on a partner’s name remains seen as a way to display your commitment and unity to the outside world. 有人说，“我觉得这是我们做为一个家庭的共同身份，我们是一个整体，我们就是我们自己……至于我们个人，可以保留我们的名和娘家姓做为中间名”“I feel like it gives us an identity as a family and not just individuals,” agrees Lindsey Evans in California. “We have our own first and middle names, which make us our own people, but having a joint last name makes us more of a unit.” 另外，婚姻也意味着分享，既然二人可以分享一切，那么分享姓名有何不可？（We talked about it beforehand and decided that because we shared everything else in our lives it made sense to share names too）
研究发现，有了孩子以后，妇女更加倾向改成夫姓，如果刚开始她们还没有改的话。有了孩子，夫妻二人会更加紧密，今后带着孩子四处旅行的时候，也会避免姓氏不同带来的各种麻烦。孩子大了以后发现父母有各自不同姓，对孩子来说，也是一种困惑，在学校里，免不了要做一番解释（Tony点评：这一点对中国孩子来说应该不成问题，因为中国就没有这个传统。但我们中国人没有这个传统，不等于说我们可以随意揣测西方人的社会心理。）
针对前面提到的从夫姓会强化夫权父权的思想，也有女性说，从夫姓不过是个传统，我改了姓，并不意味着如果我在家庭中有不同意见我就只能忍气吞声，我该发声的，依然会（ it's just nice tradition and it doesn't really mean anything’, and I disagree.）反对从夫姓的人不要太急于给别人下定论（ women who reject name-taking shouldn’t be too quick to judge others）一个女权主义者照样可以向往花前月下的浪漫生活（ Even if those women are kind of identifying as a feminist, that kind of lifestyle that they're portraying is very much a sort of romantic ideal.）
许多妇女采取了这样一种方法，即由自己来选择是否从夫姓，而不是受迫于亲朋，也不受制于自己的夫君，跟夫权父权社会无涉，也谈不上依从传统或离经叛道（they can decide what name they’d like rather than it being forced on them by their partner or society, it shouldn’t matter whether that is in keeping with, or going against, patriarchal norms. ）
一种有意思的倾向是，既然女性可以从夫姓，男性为何不可从妻姓？上面说的那些赞同分享姓名的理由，如果用在男性身上，其实也适用，所以现在，大老爷们随妻姓也不稀奇。
总的来说，婚后跟谁姓，对大多数西方妇女来说并不是个大问题，只要不预设前提，不先入为主，以开放式的态度来讨论这些现实和传统问题，都是可行的。况且，现在女权运动还有许多不平等问题的仗要打，比如男女同工同酬，所以，也有人主张把跟谁姓这类问题押后再谈。（It’s time for this to become an open-ended discussion within partnerships, and not something that is assumed or pre-determined.）
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