In California, like in most states, all it takes for a bride to take her new husband’s last name is filling out a form. But for Mike Buday to take his new wife Diana Bijon’s last name, Buday “must file a petition, pay more than $300, place a public notice for weeks in a local newspaper and then appear before a judge.”<\/p>\n
Rather than going through all that, the Bijons sued California for sex discrimination<\/a>. As a result, a state legislator is proposing a new law making it equally easy for husbands to take wive’s last names, as vice versa.<\/p>\n Only six states \u2014 Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York and North Dakota \u2014 have statutes establishing equal name-change processes for men and women when they marry. […] The Census Bureau does not keep figures on how many U.S. men are taking their brides\u2019 names. But clearly it happening more and more. Milwaukee County, Wis., Clerk Mark Ryan estimated that one in every 100 grooms there now takes the name of his wife.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 1 in 100 is, frankly, more than I would have guessed. The article also mentions that about 20% of brides elect to keep their own last names, up from about 3% in 1975.<\/p>\n Thanks to Bean for the tip!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In California, like in most states, all it takes for a bride to take her new husband’s last name is filling out a form. But for Mike Buday to take his new wife Diana Bijon’s last name, Buday “must file … Continue reading