The Return of the Maiden Name

A bit off-topic but here is an observation. For 30-40 years there has been a question when a woman gets married. What to do with her name. In my wife's family we have most of the options on display:

My wife took my last name and the kids have my name

One sister did the hyphenation for her, her spouse and the kids (Meyer-Idzik)

Her brother's wife kept her name, and they merged names for the kids (he reamins Idzik, she remained Miller and the kids were: Miller + Idzik = Midzik)

The other sister did a full merger, she, spouse and kids are all the same: (Smith + Idzik = Smidzik)

There are alot of choices. But what is interesting is the alumni directories and now FaceBook especially (this is for the people in their 30s or older who are using Facebook to catch up with old acquaintances) - many of the women are listing their names as Mary Jones Smith - so people can find them. I have many married friends who took their husband's name at least outside of work, and now through FaceBook I am suddenly learning their maiden names. I don't know the point here except that it is intersting. What does this mean for future generations of kid-naming? Nothing perhaps, but I always wondered what happens when hyphenated-named kids marry other hyphenated-named kids - do they just keep it going??

This mattered alot more to me before delving heavily into my family geneaology a few years back, when I realized that blood is blood no matter what the name is.

Randomly,

ted