Female Supremacy Articles - Page 20

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His and hers ... well, mostly hers

The reasons vary as much as the reactions when husbands take their wives' last names.

By CHANTAL LAMERS

The Orange County Register

July 17, 2006

The guests at Dayton Smith and Bobbie Jeanne La Grua's wedding didn't talk about the bride's embroidered organza dress, the five-tiered spice wedding cake or the freakishly warm October weather.

As the vows ended and the newlyweds turned from the altar toward their family and friends, the priest said something peculiar.

"I now present you with Mr. and Mrs. La Grua."

The crowd gasped. They looked around, eyes wide. Then they snickered. There must have been some sort of mistake. But as guests would soon learn, there was no slip-up. No faux pas失礼 — a social blunder on the priest's part.

Dayton Smith, upon marrying Bobbie Jeanne La Grua in 1975, agreed not only to take her in sickness and in health, but to take her last name, too.

Beginning around the 1960s, more women were choosing to keep their maiden names or hyphenate their names after marriage. The number of women choosing to retain their maiden name dipped in the mid-1990s. Bride-to-be Web site TheKnot.com reported in 2004 that 81 percent of women planned to assume the last names of their husbands. But what about the study on men who give up their surnames?