Women's understandings of name change in mixed-sex civil partnership: Identity, family, and equality

Surname change for women in Britain remains the norm for those entering mixed-sex marriages. A range of sociological literature considers the implications of this for equality and social change (e.g. Thwaites, 2016; Pilcher, 2017; Carter and Duncan, 2018). Yet naming is more complex for same-sex couples formalising their relationships, where there is no established pattern or social norm, other than the heteronormative one (Clarke et al., 2008). In this paper, we consider the surname preferences of women in mixed sex relationships considering, planning, or having had, a civil partnership. These women are an interesting case study since they have rejected traditional marriage, and yet still have the option to follow heteronormative naming practices. In this paper we draw on qualitative interview data from 15 women (and their partners) from the UK in 2020-21. We explore how surnames were understood, finding that they more closely resembled same-sex couples than married mixed-sex couples in their rejection of heteronormativity and patriarchal traditions, including women’s surname change on marriage. Alongside the rejection of ‘patriarchal’ surname change, women expressed a desire to retain their own names- and by extension their individual identity. Yet, in considering identity and family, some complexity was added to accounts of those considering (future or current) children. In these cases, the potential for creating a shared family identity provoked a challenge to the overwhelming rejection of name-change. Ultimately, identity, family, and equality played a part in their naming decisions, and for many, this offered a freedom in opposition to traditional marriage. But given the lack of suitable frameworks for women with children entering mixed-sex civil partnerships, some are left with a less than satisfactory outcome, still reckoning with the static constraints of patronymic naming conventions.