Jennifer Dempsie: Name-dropping comes back into fashion

The big question I have been battling with lately is whether a name change is a game changer. Top Scottish crime writer Shona MacLean revealed in Scotland on Sunday that she has been forced to change her name – to S G MacLean – to make her novels more appealing to men, despite the fact she has already published three successful historical crime books under her full name.

“The thinking was that my name was too soft and feminine, and men wouldn’t buy my books,” she said.

Men and women have often changed their names in the film and music industry to find something more “commercially” suitable. However, changing a name to be more masculine despite her original name being successful seemed a bit of a shame to me.

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Throughout modern history the onus has mostly been on women to change their names for career and marriage reasons. Having recently got married, it is an issue which has had me in a state of flux.

My husband and I have, so far, what I would call a modern marriage. We have our own careers, have made a name for ourselves in our own, different fields and are both very independent. But we operate as a team, taking joint decisions about our life together, acting as each other’s counsel and supporting each other.

I recently met up with my cousin, who was a high-flying career woman before taking on the very full-time job of running house and home with three energetic young boys. I have always looked up to her as a modern-day woman, yet I practically had to hand her eyebrows back to her when revealing I was keeping my maiden name.

According to Diana Boxer, a professor of linguistics at the University of Florida who studies gender and language, today’s feminists aren’t concerned by many of the issues that riled feminists in the past.

Boxer argued that the number of women changing their names today can in part be explained by the cultural emphasis on romance.

It’s an issue that I have really struggled with. I like my husband’s name but it isn’t mine. It doesn’t feel right to hand over part of my identity because I decided to commit to someone. For many of my friends who are also mostly career women, it just wasn’t a big deal, and taking their husband’s name was part of the romance of it all.

I don’t have a romantic bone in my body, and to me it seems a bizarre, antiquated and unnecessary tradition.

I have worked hard to build my career and reputation under my own name. Ironically, I managed to lose my first name along the way and become known as Dempsie among colleagues. Alex Salmond started the trend, and it caught on; I like it, as it’s a strong name that I am proud to have.

The UK Deed Poll Service estimates that only about 50 per cent of women now take their husband’s name as couples increasingly double-barrel, or “mesh”, their surnames together – a trend gaining traction in America, where Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa famously became a “mesher” after combining his name, Villar, with his wife’s, Raigosa. Not a trend I will be following.

The practice of women keeping their last names gained prominence in the headlines by the American suffragette Lucy Stone in the 1850s and popularised during the women’s rights movement of the early 1970s.

A quick look at my colleagues and contemporaries in the SNP reveals an interesting pattern. Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Aileen Campbell MSP, Eilidh Whiteford MP and Gail Lythgoe a parliamentary researcher, to name a few are all married recently and kept their maiden name.

Fiona Hyslop MSP, Angela Constance MSP, Shona Robison MSP, Maureen Watt MSP and Shirley-Anne Somerville (former MSP) are further examples.

When writing this article I asked Shirley-Anne why she didn’t take her husband’s on getting married. “For me, it was a no brainer,” she said, “I didn’t want myself or my daughters to be known as Ms Fitt”.

And rightly so, given she was declared the 2007 “Sexiest MSP” by www.sexymsp.com. Not quite the political blueprint Ms Somerville would want to be known for …

I have just discovered that it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that Scots adopted the English tradition and women began to take their husband’s name – until then, women didn’t change their name.

The classic example was the “Belle of Mauchline”: the wife of poet Robert Burns was Jean Armour, not Jean Burns. This discovery is a historical tradition that resonates with me.

In her book Getting Married in Scotland, published by the National Museums of Scotland in April 2000, Iona McGregor stated: “Until the English fashion crept northwards in the 19th century, married Scotswomen kept their maiden names.”

I think the decision today is a lessening battle between politics, romance and convenience. The bureaucratic nightmare of changing a name has certainly been a factor holding me back from taking the plunge. It can cost up to £109.50 to change your name on your passport. Perhaps I will be more inclined to give the matter serious consideration when my passport is up for renewal in ten years’ time.

But there more than just a passport to think about if you change your name; there’s your bank account, mortgage, insurance, e-mail, driving licence, doctor’s records, dentist information, National Insurance, not forgetting Facebook account, Twitter details, Amazon, iTunes. It’s a nightmare.

However, if the statistics are anything to go by, it seems the maiden name is no longer a fraught political issue. And few people are shocked when an independent-minded woman takes her husband’s name .

As the saying goes, it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind. And it seems the same can be said for changing her name.

• Jennifer Dempsie is an adviser to the SNP and former special adviser to the First Minister.