For some women, taking the man’s name after marriage isn’t a cultural norm.
“I don’t see myself taking my husband’s name officially,” said Rebecca Ong, a 26-year-old management executive who is marrying her fiance within the year. “It’s not something my family members or friends in my community have done.”
“I wouldn’t mind being called Mrs Lim and I’m happy, when we have kids, for my family to be known as the Lims,” she said. “But to be called Rebecca Lim seems strange.”
Joan Chia, a 36-year-old staff wellness executive, said: “To me, it’s about sticking to my own family name. I didn’t grow up with my husband’s surname, so I can’t resonate with it and I find it strange if I had to change my name to his.”
Public relations specialist Linda Yusoff echoes this sentiment. Yusoff is of Arab descent and married to a Malay man. In Malay culture, almost all men and women have patronymic names, meaning their father’s name is part of their name.
Linda thus found it unnecessary to take her husband’s name – essentially his father’s name – when they got married. “It’s just not what we’re used to, in either Arab or Malay culture, in Singapore,” the 32-year-old said.