What is the story behind this?
In: Other
The children need a last name, and the father’s last name had a lot more to do with their inheritance and power than their mother’s. So, if you husband and your children have the same last name and people are going to call you Mrs Smith (if your husband’s last name is Smith, which used to mean he was a blacksmith, but that’s a side track) then you might as well change your name to Smith and make everything match, legally.
As someone who’s tried non-standard name usage (my name has a first initial and middle name like J. Edgar Hoover) being the non-standard person is super not fun. My kindergarten teacher thought I was deaf when I didn’t respond to any of her names/nicknames for the initial, and it’s all downhill from there.
Women can be stubborn people, as can men of course, but changing to your husband’s name is generally going to make her life easier.
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