Can I switch back to my maiden name?
As a married woman who took my husband’s name – double-barrelled – can I, through a deed poll, revert to my maiden name and change back all my ID documents, without getting divorced? I want to claim back my name and no longer want to use my husband’s.
Thank you for your letter, and though I have written several times about the legal position of the usage of names by married women after their marriage ceremonies, and having pointed out their full legal capacity to choose how they wish to be named and identified thereafter, there are many circumstances which arise, so each one, like yours, is very helpful to further clarify the legal position and what steps must be taken to reverse or further change the names they had adopted immediately following their marriage ceremonies.
Your situation is that you had decided after your marriage ceremony to assume a double-barrelled hyphenated surname as your surname for all your identification purposes, and now, though your marriage is still subsisting, and you have no plans to petition the Supreme Court for a decree of divorce, you wish to revert to your maiden surname solely.
The correct and short answer to you is that yes, you can use a deed poll to achieve your change of name, and then change back all your identifying documents and inform all necessary and appropriate institutions of the change so that their records can be rectified. You would need to provide them with sight of the original recorded deed poll from the Registrar General’s Department, with all the requisite stamps in proof of its due process.
I believe you have asked your question as so many others are always in doubt about the legal ability of married women to act on their own behalf without the need to have the consent of their husbands, or that there may be in existence some law which abridges their rights to so act. Well, such circumstances did exist in the past, but through the repeated and assiduous lobbying of women’s human rights organisations, governments had to act and pass laws which accepted international human rights principles and standards. They were also forced to desist from passing restrictive laws to curtail married women’s human rights to make decisions themselves on all matters which affect their rights on their personhood, property, and social requirements without any interference by their husbands, as was formerly the case.
In addition, I must reiterate that there is no law in Jamaica, by legislation or under common law principles, which require a married woman to assume her husband’s name after her marriage. The choice of what name she would be known by is entirely hers, and if as you did, you added your husband’s surname to yours after your marriage ceremony and you now wish to revert, you have every right to do so; and the legal means exists by the use of the deed poll process to achieve your wish, to just revert to your maiden name without getting divorced.
It’s just the same as the legal right also exists for a married woman who had assumed only her husband’s name after marriage, after getting divorced, she can decide to retain that name as her legal identity for the rest of her life, and no one can force her to do otherwise.
You are fully in the clear to do a deed poll and revert to your maiden name without getting a divorce. The name you use at any time for the purpose of your identification is your legal choice. So all the very best.
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. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide private, personal responses.
