I was listening to Charles Adler on my newstalk radio this aft.

Did you know that in Quebec a woman CANNOT take her husband's name when they get married!? Have you ever heard of anything so bizarre?

He had a journalist as a guest. She recently got married. She said she is perfectly fine with people who don't want their husband's name or people who live together etc. etc. its just that she is called Phaneuf and her husband is Morrissette and she WANTED to be called Phaneuf-Morrisette. But she can't. She said also, she cannot change her name to Morrisette!

I believe she has hired a constitutional lawyer to fight this.

As Charles Adler said - what on earth business is it of the government?

I quite like the idea. Why should a woman change her name just because she got married? Smacks of a form of ownership, harking back to the days when inheritance passed down with the son and the name. I never changed my name when I married the first time and won't be changing it if I ever take the plunge again.

Totally agree! If anyone is changing names in relation to me, it is not going to be me.

I can't believe that women in the 21st Century in western societies actually still do this... the symbolism is utterly sexist.

Apparently, this strange law appeared during the "emancipation of women", thirty or forty years ago, when huge chunks of civil law were changed to correct the imbalance between male and female rights (I haven't studied Law, so I cannot give you a more detailed analysis here).

The point is that elsewhere, women are trusted to make the decision about taking or not taking their husband's name on their own, while Quebec won't even give them the chance.

Yes, but shouldn't this be a freedom of the individual? feel free to keep your birth name or change it to whatever you want, whenever you want (in this case, when getting together with the partner of your choice). Why have a law that prohibits such an option?

Exactly!

I refused to take my OH's last name, didn't fancy having a name that sounds like you need a good cratch But then i had that option.

But why is it assumed that it is the woman who should make that choice? Why shouldn't men have to make that choice, or not?

Socially, men and women in Quebec can go by whatever name they choose... legally - in terms of their relation as individuals to the state... they remain who they were when they were born. I think that make perfect sense.

Good point. I'm not sure, but I think you can't do that either in Quebec (i.e. you're stuck with your birth name ad vitam aeternam). It's not a really big deal, but it's a strange infringement on your freedom nevertheless.

Heh! Just try giving an alias to the police...

Not really... I can't change the year that I was born in, nor the location of my birth... but socially I can say I'm 32 and was born in Timbuktu.

I knew it!

The reality is that I am 39 and a half and was born in a pollution pit of a city in southern Ontario.... thankfully I don't remember any of it! And will always be Ms HWPs.