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He'll take my name: yes he's really sure!

The Local Germany
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He'll take my name: yes he's really sure!
He says "I will!" Photo: DPA

A quick and uncomplicated conversation between a recently engaged couple concluded that the husband-to-be would take on his fiancee's surname. However, no one was more surprised by people's reactions than Australian expat Liv Hambrett.

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Sitting in our marriage consultation in the City Hall, the registrar looked at my partner and, winking, quipped, "now, I assume you are taking her name." My partner nodded and said, "yes I am." There was a pause as the joke withered mid-air and floated to the ground. The registrar looked at me. "Oh, right. That's usually a joke, but obviously … not." He scribbled something on his page and then glanced up one more time, as if to confirm. "So you are actually taking her name."

The only thing I have ever really thought about, when it comes to marriage, is that should I ever get married, I will keep my name.

The poster boy of male progression

Fortunately for me and my wild ways of thinking, my husband-to-be is completely on board. And not just completely on board in the manner of, "yes, you keep your name, I'll keep mine", completely on board in the same manner that is entirely expected of women. He wants us and our future children to have one family name, he knows I feel strongly about keeping mine, he is willing to take mine on, and that's that.

To my girlfriends, he has become a poster boy of male progression. One friend of mine has been locked in a battle over the surname issue with her boyfriend of six years, and begged me to tell her what I did to change my partner's mind. And she isn't the only one who has asked me what I did to make him change. I didn't do anything. He wants to take my name, he wants my family name to be our family name. But I began to feel like perhaps I had done something to lure, or force him into thinking like I think, like I had trapped him in a socially progressive, feminist decision he didn't want to make.

Indeed, among the surprise, the "is he sure?" ad nauseam, the high fives, the "oh my God, that's amazing, my boyfriend would never agree to that", only one reaction has actually surprised me; my own. Having been, for as long as I could remember ever having an opinion on the issue, so steadfast and unchanging in my desire to retain my name, faced with my future husband saying, "I'll take yours."

What will people think?

I felt his dad would be disappointed, I felt people would assume I was making a silly little stand and dragging my poor partner along with me, a notion that in itself completely removes any decision-making ability and critical thinking from my extremely intelligent partner. I asked him, repeatedly, if he was sure. If he "knew what he was doing". Each time I did, he would look at me strangely, as if asking a question like that was ridiculous.

After a while, though, I reminded myself of something; he is just doing what women have been doing for a long, long time. He is just doing what every single female I know (bar one or two) who are married, have done. He is just doing what everyone assumed I would do, and I cannot imagine, were my answer to be "yes", anyone following up their, "and I am guessing you're taking his name" with "but are you sure you want to do it? Are you sure you won't regret it?" Because there is no assumption of regret when a woman gives up her surname and takes on that of her husband's. If anything, it is a celebratory moment.

A personal preference

I understand that there are reasons for giving up a name that go beyond simple social expectation. A lot of women say they don't like their name, or feel no connection to it, or resent its connection to an absent or disliked parent.

Many women simply don't care either way, and it's the easier, done thing to take their husband's. Some women care a little bit, but when it comes to the discussion with their husband-to-be, it becomes apparent he cares more. Some women like the tradition, or the symbolism, and each to their own. I also understand that to many women, it simply isn't a big deal.

And it isn't a big deal to my partner, either. The other day, someone – a woman – celebrated his decision afresh. Later that night, when we were talking about it, I asked him how he felt about people's reactions.

He said, "I feel like a hero and I am not sure what I have done."

Liv Hambrett lives in Kiel. This dispatch originally appeared on The Daily

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