Hi Folks

This question might concern anyone, male or female, who changes their name when marrying.

Say you were a Miss/Mr James before marriage, and chose to become Miss/Mr Brown after marriage - how would you name yourself? - assuming that you persevered and struggled through to the end to obtain a PhD.

Would you choose to call yourself Dr James or Dr Brown?

Would it depend on whether you got married before, during or after the PhD?  Is it completely a matter of personal choice, or are there regulations that should be followed?

Reverting to a single name after a divorce could be a topic for another time!

Angelette

I guess it's a matter of personal choice, however, my external examiner stuck with her pre-marriage name for the Dr. and later the Prof. title.

She did in the end divorce, so due to her choices wouldn't have had her married name on her PhD cert. I don't know if the Uni. would change it after award. Anyone advise?

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

All the people I know have the name they had when they started studying...
So, if you start your PhD as Miss/Mr Brown and then you get married/change your name and become Mrs/Mr Smith, you have "Brown" on your certificate. But if you were Mrs/Mr Smith whnen you started, then you have Mrs/Mr Smith on your certificate....

In Greece unitil 1981 or 1982, women were obliged to change their names after marriage. So my mum (Miss Z) became Mrs X after she married my dad (Mr X). But when they got married she was still studying. Her degree has Ms Z written on it, and all her working life she was Ms Z...When she retired the bank had problems, as on her id (which she had to change after marriage ) she was Mrs X, but all the documents for her retirement were for Ms Z..... Complicated!!!!!!!!!!!
Now women in Greece have the option to keep their name!

As far as I understand it's your choice completely but I might be wrong. I've know of a few women who were known as Mrs James (at home) and Dr Brown (at work) but that sounds confusing to me...

On the subject of different cultures, an exception would be Spanish women, they don't change their surnames when they get married ;-)

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My PhD was part-time so took 6 years with ample opportunity for circumstances to change! I started as miss dunni and after 3 years I was married. I could have changed my name with the uni to mrs smith but as I had a few publications under miss dunni the link to those would have been lost. I therefore remained as mrs dunni throughout my PhD for continuity, although in every other part of my life I was mrs smith. Now I have completed my PhD I am dr smith with my certificate in my maiden name dr dunni. I find it easy to provide my marriage certificate as evidence of my name change, if necessary, and just carry the title with me. It is afterall the title that is awarded which is not specific to any surname you legally have ie maiden, married or deedpoll change. If I were now presenting or publishing I would revert back to my maiden name just for the occasion. Everyone confused?!?!:$

I registered for my PhD as Miss C, and was known as Miss C for my first year. I recently got married and took my hubby's name, so I am now known at uni (and elsewhere) as Mrs B. When I finish I will be Dr B. Personal preference; I definitely didn't want 'two names', one is enough for me! It would have been different if I had had publications maybe. But one of the main reasons why I wanted to get married was to have the same surname as my husband.