What's in a name?

In Europe, when a woman gets married she changes her surname to her husbands surname.
In the middle east, when a woman gets married she keeps her own name.
In the subcontinent, she changes her name to her husbands.

Why?

Is changing your name a Indo-European thing? Do Irani's and Turks do it?
What is the purpose of changing your name?
When did this start happening?

What about other cultures? Do you change or not change?

Do you have a preference towards your wife/yourself changing your name? Why?


I can moderately understand why Arabs do not change their name; because of the importance of family history, but what about everyone else?

To correct you there Omar, in the Hispanic world it works differently I believe.

For a child, your name is then: (first name) + (second name) + (father's surname) + (mother's surname). Your overall surname is your father's, but when saying your full name this is the order it follows.

For the wife, she drops her mother's maiden surname and replaces it with her husband's paternal surname, with the word de between that name and her father's surname.

Omer even in S Asia until the arrival of the British name changing was not the norm.

In Turkey womans use their husbands name.

Ikki, I think it was indeed a more ancient practice.

Originally posted by Omar al Hashim Originally posted by Sparten Omer even in S Asia until the arrival of the British name changing was not the norm. I suspected as much but I didn't know for sure. So it appears as if each society has taken the naming method fairly randomly. Which just makes the underlying reason more obscure. Originally posted by Erkut In Turkey womans use their husbands name. What about in Ottoman days though? Was it still done then?

As far as I know it was done under Ottoman times, too.

Hey!  First post!

Originally posted by Ikki   Umm i don't know if that is the ancient practice or in other hispanic countries, but in Spain:   First name + (optional, other names) + Father's surname + Mother's surname   Always, when child and after the woman is married. In fact, since recent years you can choose the order of the surnames like you want, putting first your mather and then your father althought the tradition is like i said before.

Agreed, that's how it works most of the time.  I think it has more to do with religion than anything else.  Most cultures that allow such a tradition are, from what I've noticed (no official analysis here - just observation) Spanish/Central/South American hispanic, and are overwhelmingly Catholic.  Catholicism puts a heavy emphasis on the Madre de Dios.  I really don't think that's a coincidence, but I have no proof.  Only conjecture.