Marital Surname Change and Marital Duration Among Divorcées in a Canadian County

Abstract

Women’s marital surname change has been discussed as comprising one possible signal of intention to remain married, and may be perceived as such, and valued, by husbands. Here, the practice was investigated as a potential predictor of marital duration among couples who went on to divorce. An archival analysis was based on a search of all available, opposite-sex divorces filed over an 8-month period in a Canadian county. Among couples (n = 107) divorcing, marriages the women in which underwent marital surname change lasted 60% longer, controlling for wife’s age at the time of marriage. When the woman’s marital surname change/retention was used as a regression predictor of number of children of the marriage alongside marriage duration in years, only the latter was predictive. No husband took his wife’s surname. Giving the maternal surname (along with the paternal surname) to children occurred at a negligible frequency. Potential reasons for these findings including costly signaling and, ultimately, paternity uncertainty, as well as possible implications for public policy, are discussed.

Canadian Brides’-to-Be Surname Choice: Potential Evidence of Transmitted Bilateral Descent Reckoning

“…I derived the first hypothesis from the supposition that women's marital surname change functions as a commitment signal (MacEacheron 2016b(MacEacheron , 2021, and thereby husband and affinal investment enhancer, among those who will most need such support. Such individuals (among brides) were thought to be those wanting and expecting more children.…”

“…6 CÉGEP, or Collège d'enseignement general et professionnel, is a Quebec-only education level preparatory for university, similar to that of community college elsewhere in Canada (e.g., Quebec General and Vocational Colleges Act, c-29, as amended). 7 Bride's age and, separately, (state-level, median women's) income were strong predictors of retention/hyphenation in (MacEacheron 2011(MacEacheron , 2021, and income as a predictor received partial support under Hypothesis 1a. Since age in women predicts number of future children expectable, and such number might in turn predict attitude to or actual retention/hyphenation, whether number of children desired might act as a mediator between age and each of the two DVs was assessed.…”

“…Such a possibility cannot be discounted, and the absence of need to 'get in good', as above, cannot be preferred as explanatory, given the current study's data. MacEacheron (2011MacEacheron ( , 2021, however, found, using large-scale, pan-U.S. data from two different years, that state-level average/median women's income (alongside household income inequality expressed by the Gini coefficient, plus their interaction) was positively predictive of surname retention/hyphenation (rather than change to that of the husband) among destination brides to Hawai'i. Note, in arguing for what might be called facultative, costly, commitment signaling, of brides' pre-marital surname 'sacrifice' versus retention choice, MacEacheron (2021, at p. 206) states, ".…”

“…." Given MacEacheron's (2011MacEacheron's ( , 2021 studies were large-scale, replicated, pan-U.S., and multi-year, and assuming there is indeed no possible mechanism by which such results could have been obtained solely via a conscious reasoning process on the part of brides in making their marital surname choice, it would seem the preponderance of evidence currently favors an in-part non-conscious/not-detectable-via-introspection (nor via survey) process, related to own income (potential) and relative income inequality, by which women arrive at a marital surname choice. More research-for instance among brides of lesser income (which those able to pay to travel to Hawai'i from anywhere else in the U.S. would not be, and those registered with a bridal magazine may not be)-in any case, could still be conducted.…”