What's in a name?

A commenter on a FB thread remarked that her daughter kept her "maiden" name because after all the work she put into getting her PhD, she didn't want to be known as "Dr. [husband's name]."

My mom used her married name for publication, but she had already been married for 20 years and was comfortable using that last name. My wife and I started graduate school two weeks after we were married. We discussed names (both changing or keeping mine or changing or keeping hers) and she elected to use my last name.

I've known female MDs and PhDs who done either one. The challenge historically has been if you change your name after you've already published; then some of your publications wouldn't show up on a simple search. Of course, you can do a boolean search on Pubmed, so I don't think this is an issue anymore.

My daughter and her partner solved the name problem by creating a new last name that is a chimera of each of their "maiden" names. That seems to be working for them. I'm glad we live in a place and time where this is no longer an issue!

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