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> "It seems some people believe that you get a name and it never changes. Not so, even in Western countries, where a person may change their name when they marr

> "It seems some people believe that you get a name and it never changes. Not so, even in Western countries, where a person may change their name when they marry." Since it is traditionally /women/ who change their names when married, this blind spot does not surprise me.

logfromblammo 8y ago
In common-law countries, you could also change your name just by using the new name. You could stand in the town square and announce, "I'm Max Power now, everybody. Stop calling me Doug Putz. New name: Max Power." And that would be it. Or you go up on stage and say "I'm not just 'Gordon' any more. Call me 'Sting'." And everybody rolls with it, because no one cares about a bass player named Gordon, but a guy named Sting has to be cool. And then he actually has two completely separate names, that both refer to the same person. In modern times, governments make you fill out a form and pay a fee, because now people need to know people that don't all live inside an hour-long trip radius by horse. And publishing a name change to hundreds of millions of people that may want to know about it cannot be done by soapbox and megaphone. And those forms cause all kinds of problems. All the information on it has to fit inside the boxes, you see.
repolfx 8y ago
I don't think you need to reach for sexism as an explanation there. Name changes are sufficiently rare that building the flows to support it will usually only become an issue in mature production software where accurate names are extremely important, and where preserving long term records is equally important. That's not most systems. And that's before you get into cases where names are primary keys like usernames. The business case for supporting such changes can be pretty weak relative to other features.
- watwut 8y ago
  It is not rare. Overwhelming majority of married women changed surname and remember "fun" that came with it. Women are half population and while marriages go down, they are not rare at all.
- cgoecknerwald 8y ago
  Name changes are not rare. In recent decades, about 80 percent of brides choose to change their names after the wedding, both professionally and legally. [1] Most people marry at least once. [2] Women are half the population. That being said, I do agree that in many systems, supporting name changes is not an immediate priority. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/upshot/maiden-names-on-the-rise-again.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/upshot/maiden-names-on-the... [2] https://flowingdata.com/2017/11/01/who-is-married-by-now/ https://flowingdata.com/2017/11/01/who-is-married-by-now/

logfromblammo 8y ago

In common-law countries, you could also change your name just by using the new name. You could stand in the town square and announce, "I'm Max Power now, everybody. Stop calling me Doug Putz. New name: Max Power." And that would be it. Or you go up on stage and say "I'm not just 'Gordon' any more. Call me 'Sting'." And everybody rolls with it, because no one cares about a bass player named Gordon, but a guy named Sting has to be cool. And then he actually has two completely separate names, that both refer to the same person. In modern times, governments make you fill out a form and pay a fee, because now people need to know people that don't all live inside an hour-long trip radius by horse. And publishing a name change to hundreds of millions of people that may want to know about it cannot be done by soapbox and megaphone. And those forms cause all kinds of problems. All the information on it has to fit inside the boxes, you see.

repolfx 8y ago

I don't think you need to reach for sexism as an explanation there. Name changes are sufficiently rare that building the flows to support it will usually only become an issue in mature production software where accurate names are extremely important, and where preserving long term records is equally important. That's not most systems. And that's before you get into cases where names are primary keys like usernames. The business case for supporting such changes can be pretty weak relative to other features.

watwut 8y ago
It is not rare. Overwhelming majority of married women changed surname and remember "fun" that came with it. Women are half population and while marriages go down, they are not rare at all.
cgoecknerwald 8y ago
Name changes are not rare. In recent decades, about 80 percent of brides choose to change their names after the wedding, both professionally and legally. [1] Most people marry at least once. [2] Women are half the population. That being said, I do agree that in many systems, supporting name changes is not an immediate priority. [1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/upshot/maiden-names-on-the-rise-again.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/upshot/maiden-names-on-the... [2] https://flowingdata.com/2017/11/01/who-is-married-by-now/ https://flowingdata.com/2017/11/01/who-is-married-by-now/