Marrying left your maiden name disused.
Its five light sounds no longer mean your face,
Your voice, and all your variants of grace;
For since you were so thankfully confused
By law with someone else, you cannot be
Semantically the same as that young beauty:
It was of her that these two words were used.


So wrote Philip Larkin in the first verse of the wonderful poem, Maiden Name. There is a lot less confusion by law with someone else going on these days, since women do not have to take their husband's surname, which is all right and good in my opinion. There seems to be no logical reason for one name being obliterated from the family record by simple virtue of gender.

And yet, I was very pleased when Ann said that she wanted to take my surname over her Thai name, Kunakhum. I made no request nor was it my desire but still, this is what she wanted to do. And that is also right and good, surely.