Last Names

Today, not every woman makes a trek to the DMV and Social Security office to change her name after a trip down the aisle. Attachment to your maiden name or a desire to keep your own identity can influence a newlywed's decision, but so might an unfortunate surname belonging to the groom.

This week New York Rep. Anthony Weiner is at the center of a Twitter scandal, and his last name isn't helping. A photo of a man's underwear-clad "wiener" showed up in Weiner's Twitter stream. At first he had the perfect excuse: someone hacked his account and played an immature prank using his last name for fodder. Now Weiner admits that the photo might be him and it's hard to tell what really happened. One thing that is easy? Making bad jokes and Weiner/wiener puns.

Have you ever gone out on a date with a guy and upon learning his last name thought, well, I'm definitely not taking his name? Or maybe you have a name you're excited to give up. Tell your stories in the comments!

Every country has its marriage problems. While the US fights for same-sex marriage, gay people in China are arranging sham marriages to appease families. But in Japan, straight women are asking for the simple right to retain their maiden names.

The anger's been steeping for a while, but four women and one man (one woman's spouse) took action this week by filing what could be a landmark case for civil rights in Japan. A 19th-century law says all females must change their birth names to their husbands' after marriage; however, Japan's Civil Code only stipulates that married couples must share a last name and doesn't specify whose. So in recent years, some men have been taking their wives' surnames, particularly when women hail from more noble families. How . . . noble of them?

The lawsuit says forcing women to change their names breaches a civil code clause dating back to 1898, which guarantees equal rights for both spouses. Lest you think this is some Gen-Y revolution, think again. One of the four women at the center of the lawsuit is 75-year-old Kyoko Tsukamoto. She says that having to use her husband's surname for more than half a century has been "like having a splinter in my heart." Though her husband does not agree, she decided to join the case because she's been lobbying lawmakers in vain for decades.

It seems like such a small request, but the women still face an uphill battle. Only 37 percent of Japan's residents support amending the civil code, and 35 percent are against it. Really, Japan? It's not like they want to marry a national monument or a virtual girlfriend!

Source: Flickr User Macorig Paolo

Much like the marriage debate in the US, politicians in Japan argue over the familial institution. Yet in Japan, the debate doesn't rage over gay marriage, rather over whether women should keep their maiden surnames. Japan is the only major industrialized nation to require spouses have the same name, but only one major political party supports changing the status quo. How come?

Japan's traditional concept of marriage used to guarantee property and businesses passed on to men. Those who want to keep the remnant of this male-centric conception of marriage worry that allowing husbands and wives to keep their maiden names would threaten the family unit and negatively impact a child's identity. They also argue that it could lead to an increase in divorce. Somewhat surprisingly, men are allowed to take a wife's last name, but that rarely happens. So today it's not just about keeping a man's name alive, but also about having a married couple share a public identity.

Thirty percent of TrèsSugar readers say they wouldn't take their husband's name and Japanese women who want to keep separate identities, at least as far as last names go, simply do not register their marriages. Even if you think it's crazy to require it by law, do you think there's value in having a common last name as a married couple?