THE RIGHT OF A MARRIED WOMAN TO HER MAIDEN NAME
Follette, Belle Case La
The Right of a Married Woman to Her Maiden Name BY BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE ASTOB&l: of indignation and protest was created recently by the ruling of the U. S. Register of Copyrights that a married...
...And she says: "To insi-st that the us< married woman of her maiden name is an i:i fringement of social usage and a violation < uniformity is to set up in the field of law .. .-ocial standard and not a legal one...
...but the fact is not so...
...rite...
...No statute law-deals with the matter...
...The Right of a Married Woman to Her Maiden Name BY BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE ASTOB&l: of indignation and protest was created recently by the ruling of the U. S. Register of Copyrights that a married woman must register her claim to copyright in her husband's surname...
...a married woman may legally bear a different name from her husband, and very many instances might be quoted in proof of the fact...
...Statute by which a change of name is authorised Injudicial decree do not affect the common rule that a person may adopt lyiy name she wishes...
...It was a custom from which any person might depart...
...The case of Maria Jeritza, the opera singer, decided by the United States District court for the Southern District of New York, on May 24, 1926, sustains the right of a married woman to use her maiden name...
...The Bureau believes that precautions will have to be taken when oil shale is being mined, just as in safely-operated coal mines...
...It is a settled rule of the common law that a person may have any name he or she chooses, and usage makes it his or her legal name as effectually as if it had been conferred by an Act of the legislature or by judicial decree...
...A brief prepared by the National Woman's Party asking that the nil...
...The question was raised as to whether she should be permitted to serve under her maiden name...
...Miss Wold concludes her able legal argument submitted for the National Woman's Party thus: "The rule requiring a woman to register a claim to a copyright in her husband's surname should be abolished because it is an infringement upon a woman's right to her maiden name—a right established by the con>-mon law and denied by no statute...
...Compounds of carbon and hydrogen present in the shale produce the danger of explosion which increases with the richnPfis of the oil shale...
...The world's largest airplane, the Barling Bomber, has six Liberty engines which develop 2440 horsepower...
...It is a subject of wide interest about which there is much confusion as to the law in the average mind A name is a word or words by which an individual is designated and distinguished from other individuals...
...It is a very common practice in England for peeresses (not being peeresses in their own right) after marrying commoners to retain the name and title of the first husband and not to accept that of the second husband...
...Justice Thacher in holding that Jeritza was the legal name of the plaintiff, in answer to the argument that a woman upon her marriage assumes the name of her husband and cannot legally call herself by any other name said: "No authority for this has been cited, and I find none which requires a married woman to assume the name of her husband, although she is certainly entitled to do so and the relations of the average home ordinarily present very practical reasons why she should...
...Another instance of the recognition of the right of a married woman to retain her maiden name comes from Wisconsin...
...Madame Jeritza sued to enjoin the use of her name by the defendants for advertising and trade purposes...
...The question was whether the second marriage was valid under a statute making a marriage void where the banns were not published under the true Christian and surnames of the parties...
...The Attorney General held that she was so entitled to serve...
...The defendants contended that the name "Jeritza" was not the true name of the plaintiff since she was married "to a man by the name of Popper de Podhragy...
...This condition has made it necessary for the plane operators to install sloping, easy chairs with high back for the comfort of their passengers especially on the longer trips...
...was not such misconduct as to warrai...
...Thus surnames "grew into general use without any law commanding their adoption...
...In confirmation of this point of view...
...In Jones v. Kohier, 137 Indiana 528, the court speaks of a woman "changing her name by assuming that of a - - - husband...
...In other words, the custom was subject to the immemorial rule of the common law that a person may take any name he or she chooses...
...In a recent case in Wisconsin, it was held that the use of her maiden name by a school teacher in signing the pay roll of the district, even in violation of a rule of the board of the school directors requiring that a married woman should sign in the name of her husband...
...DAY SLEEPERS" ON PLANES Due to the ceaseless drone of the motors and the fact that at such height the landscape moves slowly, passengers on airplanes in Europe find they are easily lulled to sleep...
...It should be abolished because no authority has bcei granted to govcn.Ki^nt officials to require woman to relinquish htr legal name...
...In an early English case where a woman had married twice, first a man named Browne and then a man named Rigg...
...absence of a legal basis for a rule requiring that a married woman should secure a past-port in her husband's family name...
...On Nove.ttter 4, 1924, a married woman was elected to the office of County Clerk in her maiden name...
...OIL SHALE DC ST EXPLOSIVE NOW that the actual manufacture of ©il from oil shale has begun in Colorado and the oil industry is looking forward to commercial production, many experiments are being conducted to bring out possible features of oil productions from oil shale...
...While the wife of Browne, she retained her maiden name, Ann Lovick, and when she contract dethe second marriage, it was not as Ann Browne, but as "Ann Lovick, widow...
...The adoption of the husband's name was a matter of personal preference and individual choice, a custom as honored in the breach as in the keeping, as many historical examples attest...
...will prove of importance to the infant oil shale industry...
...The custom of a wife's taking her husband's surname crept in relatively late and as a sort <»f temporary convenience...
...The common law is an ancient institution long antedating the use of surnames...
...The Dc partmcnt now recognizes the right of a wife V apply for a passport in her maiden name wher-.she is accustomed to use that name...
...The mere danger of explosion, however, will not stop the growth of the oil shale ind-ustry, if it proves as practical as present prospects indicate...
...Emma Wold, the author of the exeeiivnt brief on the right of a woman to choose her own name, or for that matter for a man to choose his own name, since the law makes if optional for either to do so, Bays: "In the absence of statutes making it man datory for a woman to assume her husband' surname, her common law right to use her o»m name must prevail...
...As th wife's inaiden name ocs not identify her husband unless he ha_s assumed it, so the husband's name does not identify the wife where her maiden name is her legal name or her professional name...
...be abolished covers the law in relation to the matter in a most interesting as well as satisfactory and thorough manner...
...A recent discovery by the Bureau of .Mine...
...The court said in part, "It has been asserted in the argument, that a married woman cannot legally bear any other name than that which she has acquired in wedlock...
...I am sorry space permits only a brief summary of its contents...
...A review of the laws .» the individual states of the United Statr shows no statute denying this right...
...He said, in part: "While a married woman generally takes and uses her husband's surname, there is nothing in the laws of this state that affirmatively requires it, although the general rule of such custom is recognized in the divorce laws...
...The insufficiency of the Christian name to distinguish the particular individual, where there were many bearing the same name, led to the giving of surnames...
...In a case involving this right, Ixird Lindley, of the House of Lords, sai j¦• "The controversy between tno parties is * • reduced to a dispute about the use of a name...
...If the woman's name is changed by assuming that of a husband, then manifestly, jf the wife does not assume the husband's name, no change in name takes place, and her maiden name remains her legal name and should be recognized as such whenever used for the purpose of identification...
...the fact that recently the State Depart ment of the United States has recognized th...
...Speaking generally, the law of this country allows any person to assume and use any name, provided its use is r.ot calculated to deceive and to inflict pecuniary loss...
...Not until the time of Edward I did surnames come into use in England, nor did they come to be of controlling importance even as late as the time of Elizabeth...
...suspension from the service...
...Therefore, under the old English rule husband and wife, each with a given name, had no surname at all because there was no surname to bear...
...Oil shale is produced by mining and tests have shown that oil shale dusts are explosive...
Vol. 19 • January 1927 • No. 1
