Surname regrets

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I got married three years ago and foolishly proceeded to hyphenate my surname on my TRN and driver’s licence, and subsequently changed my name on my bank accounts, work documents, insurance, utility bills, and my mortgage documents by presenting to these organisations my marriage certificate. I didn’t change the name on my passport, because my visas hadn’t expired and I wanted to wait until they did.

The issue now is that I’m rethinking if this was the right move, and I cringe each time I think about it, as I’ve heard how difficult it can be for a woman to reclaim her name after divorce. I also feel like I’ve lost some of my identity by taking on my husband’s name.

We are not headed for divorce or anything; in fact we’re happily married and will be together for many, many years. I just think I made a mistake changing my name, and want my maiden name back!

What can I do? My visas expire in a few months, and I want to reapply under the name that’s in my passport — my maiden name — and not the hyphenated married name that’s on my other documents. Can I do this legally? Can I legally keep my passport in my maiden name, even though I have changed my TRN? Is there a way to revert to my maiden name on my TRN and other paperwork without divorcing?

It is amazing, the large number of people who are under the misconception that the law requires women to adopt their husbands’ surname after marriage. This is in fact not the case. There is no legal requirement or provision in common law jurisdiction countries which places women under the legal obligation to assume their husbands’ surname after marriage. It is a practice which was socially imposed by leaders of societies and these were men, of course. As they were in power, they assumed and gave all power and control to themselves, while diminishing, and in some instances, transferring all individual rights, power and control of married women over their affairs and property to their husbands. They did some of this through legislation, for example, the Married Women’s Property Act. This Act gave all control and power over the property of a married woman to her husband, and is one of the clear examples of obvious discriminatory laws, which for no other reason other than the fact of marriage, stripped married women of any ability to make any decision or do any acts about their own personal monies and properties.

Anyway, as I said, there is no legal provision which requires that you change your name after you marry. Please check your marriage certificate and you will note that your signature on it is in your maiden, and as I prefer to refer to it, “your family name”. This act of signing the register is done after your marriage ceremony is complete and you are required to perform this legal act by use of your legal name after marriage and that is in the name you acquired after birth and used through the years of your life until that moment of time of signing the register. So what this means is that the adoption and use of a husband’s surname by a married woman is one of choice.

A married woman can legally retain her own surname after marriage so that all her legal papers continue in that name, or choose as you did to adopt her husband’s surname as a societal practice. You in fact chose to retain your own surname and join it with your husband’s and proceeded to change all your legal documents, save for your passport which can and does identify who you are in your everyday life and legally, as per your choice.

I should point out that as there is no legal provision that a wife’s surname must change to that of her husband, no government office, agency or institution can impose such a use of name on any woman who happens to be married.

So what can you do to change your TRN, driver’s licence, bank accounts and all other documents you have listed in your letter back to your own maiden/family surname? It is simply this, that you must do so by executing and recording a Deed Poll at the Registrar General’s Department. Just make sure that you obtain more than one sealed copy of the duly recorded Deed Poll. You then use this by producing an original sealed copy to all the relevant offices to effect the change. The Deed Poll will in fact merely say that you, formerly known as “Ann Smith-Brown” will now be known as “Ann Smith”. You see, once you started using the hyphenated surname in all those documents and socially, you made such a name your legal identity and so you must legally change it back, if you wish now to be known and have the legal identity of your maiden/family name. You must use the existing and recognised legal means of a Deed Poll to obtain its means to tell the relevant offices what your legal identity is.

By the way, the Passport Office has no legal authority to force you to obtain a new passport in a name other than yours which you use as your legal identity. It will of course save you some aggravation once you have and can show your Deed Poll in proof of your legal identity.

I trust that I have made the position clear for you and wish you all the best and you and your husband continuing happiness together.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and 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. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.