General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I wish women in the U.S. automatically kept their last names when they marry [View all]Sarah Ibarruri
(21,043 posts)France
Since the 1789 Revolution, the law stipulates that "no one may use another name than that given on his birth certificate";[23] furthermore, the 1946 revision to the Constitution guarantees that "women and men have equal rights", including in the use of their birth name. Upon getting married, a woman keeps her maiden name (nom de jeune fille). She may, under her maiden name, for example, open a bank account, sign cheques, obtain a passport, etc. However, marriage grants a married person the right to assume his or her spouse's last name. It is still a common practice for a woman to use her husband's name in this way, despite the fact that no official due process formalizes this usage. The majority of married women use their husband's name for all documents, official or not. The article 264 of the French civil code does, however, stipulate that "upon divorcing both spouses lose the right to use each other's name".
A married person who wishes to formally append a spouse's name to his or her birth name may do so through a simple administrative procedure. In recent years, this trend has gained popularity, especially among upper class women and among women who received a university diploma (MD, PhD) under their maiden name. For example, President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife is called Madame Bruni-Sarkozy, in which "Bruni" is her birth name and "Sarkozy" her husband's name. Some husbands append their wife's last name to their birth name, although this remains rare.