Forced to use my married name

By Margarette MACAULAY

Monday, January 02, 2012

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I am an account holder at a parish credit union. I am experiencing great difficulty in having my marital name removed from an account I operate with the institution. I am divorced. I have supplied the institution with a copy of the decree absolute. My identification cards and my pay advice with my maiden name have also being supplied with the application I made to them. I started the account with my maiden name and after marriage, the married name was added. On the account I am first name, maiden name, married name. They have refused to remove the name saying that I need to do a deed poll or apply to the court to stop using the marital name. Is that true? Is it right that they are forcing me to use that name? I do not have any form of identification with the married name. Please advise me what to do. I want to move on from that traumatic marriage and they are trying to force me to continue using the name that reminds me of the trauma I suffered.

I sense your frustration while reading your letter as this is a vexed issue. I am a little confused, though, about your actual position. Is it that you never chose to adopt your husband's name at all? You say you have no form of identification with the married name on it. If this is so, how did the credit union come to add the married name to your name on the account which you had opened and held in your maiden name? Did you do this or did they take it upon themselves to just enter your then husband's name to that on the account and so made it yours?

If they did this, they would be completely wrong because they would have imposed upon you what should have been your free and sole choice (hopefully, you would have discussed this matter with your ex-husband before marriage).

But it seems to me, that you must have informed them of your marriage and of the name of your then husband, otherwise, how would they have known about it? If you told them, I am at a loss to understand why you did so, if as you say, you continued to keep as your identity for all other purposes, your blood family name/maiden name.

Anyway, by whatever means this occurred, after it was done and you knew of the change, you did nothing to have it rectified. You, however, seemingly operated your account with them for some time with the married name. This being so, then such a name for all intents and purposes, as far as they were and are concerned, was and is your true identity, unless you can show that it was their error. But based on what I have stated earlier herein, I do not see how claim of it being their mistake would hold.

So, if this was so, and it was thereafter used by you with them as your true identity, as they have said, you will then have to change it by deed poll, or you could, under the inherent jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, apply for a declaration that such a name was never your name and for a consequential order, directed to the credit union, to rectify their records by reverting to your true identity.

I said this matter is a vexed issue because a married woman can merely choose to adopt her husband's surname and just start to use it without any formal legal act, but it then permanently becomes her identity by adoption. She just has to inform offices and agencies that so and so is now her name, and it's often accepted informally. The issue is, if this is done informally, why, when the woman wants it undone, must she do a deed poll?

Indeed, all Government agencies and private concerns require a formal change by deed poll. The raison d'etre is that once she adopted and used the 'married' name, then that became her true and legal identity. She announced to the world by the adoption and its usage that this is her name by which she is to be known and this became her identity, which sticks to her, so when a change becomes necessary, she must effect the change formally. This practice has become so embedded that it would probably take legislation to cause a change of it.

So, my dear, I am sorry to say that the deed poll is the quickest way to go and certainly the least frustrating means of getting the credit union to change their records so you can get rid of this name which is causing you continuous discomfort.

Finally, I must highlight the fact that there is no legal requirement that any wife must adopt her husband's name. It is a matter solely of her choice, but once she chooses and uses her husband's name as hers, it becomes her identity legally. Then, once she has all her documents of identity issued in her adopted name, and changes her name in other records, if in the future she wishes to drop it and change back to her maiden name, she would have to effect another change of her identity.

The law says that to change your identity you must do so by deed poll, except, of course, when a married woman adopts her husband's name. This I firmly believe is a leftover of the possessory, paternalistic and discriminatory practices which visited upon married women for centuries.

I hope I have clarified the position for you because it seems to me that the credit union had no other choice but to require this of you because of the embedded practice which prevails.

Best wishes.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law and a women's and children's rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. Mrs Macaulay cannot give advice via e-mail.

DISCLAIMER:

The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.

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Forced to use my married name