What's in a (Last) Name?

Several surveys over the past three decades indicate a steady increase in the number of brides taking their husband's name at marriage. This reverses a trend, which started in the late ’60s and peaked sometime in the ’90s, of women keeping their own surname or hyphenating the two names together. The development shows “a return to romance, a desire to make marriage work,” according to Harvard economics professor Claudia Goldin.

Source: The New York Times, Oct. 30

Illustration by Tim Rauch