Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1910 — NEED NOT CHANGE NAME. [ARTICLE]

NEED NOT CHANGE NAME.

Married Women in Kansas Enjoy More Freedom than Elsewhere. According to a decision of AttorneyGeneral Frederick S. Jackson, of Kansas, the laws of that State do not reon&re a wsw to change hsx name on. marrying. A young woman was commissioned a notary public and afterward decided to get nurrted. She still wanted to retain her notary work and asked the Attorney General if it would be necessary to get a new commission and seal after the marriage. The Attorney Gen■fal mpllad that this was not neces-

sary and that she could continue to use her old name and pay no attention to that of her husband, t Also, if she desired, she could use her maiden sufname for all business transactions and use the name of her husband socially. Just as a little extra advice, the Attorney General told the young woman i that if her powers of persuasion were sufficient she might prevail upon her soon-to-be spouse that her name was the best and that he ought te drop his own and take up her name in its stead. "There is nothing to prevent this,” said the Attorney General, according to the Baltimore Sun. “The taking of the name of the husband by the wife is wholly a matter of custom and not of law. The husband is the head of the family, and custom gives him the right to fix the name for the family. If yourself and your husband are not satisfied with either of your surnames, there is nothing except the criticisms of the public to prevent your picking out some other name In the dictionary of proper names and take it for your own. When you are married, your husband may elect to change his name to yours or he may deside on something else. That becomes the name of the family and you cannot change it. But there is no law which compels you to accept It. You may retain your own surname and you and your husband may live under different names.” While all these things are possible under the Kansas law, it is also possible for a man to change his name at will; still the Attorney General does not like the idea of a woman’s retaining her maiden name when she is married. In his letter to the woman he says that she would not violate any law if she continued to act as a notary public and use her maiden name after her marriage; still he believes that she ought to give up the business and attend strictly, to her household duties.