Groom's equal right to a name change would be spelled out in Oregon proposal

SALEM, Ore. — A woman on the verge of marriage is faced with a plethora of choices. She can keep her last name, take her husband's last name, put a hyphen between the two last names or convince her husband to help form an entirely new surname by combining letters from both their names.

State Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, figured men needed to be aware that they have the same options, so the Oregon Legislature is on its way to making it easier for a groom to take a bride's last name.

Walker recently tagged an amendment onto a bill that would redesign the application for marriage licenses.

The new-look application would include room for a box where the man and woman could write what they'll be called after their wedding day.

The applications now have boxes for the bride's and groom's current names but no place to put what they want their new surnames to be.

Walker's amendment clears up laws to state specifically that either party can take the other's name or they can choose a hyphenated combination.

"We are no longer a patriarchal society," Walker told senators this week before they passed House Bill 3120 in a 19-11 vote. "This simply makes it fair."

Walker told The Oregonian newspaper that she got the idea while looking at a copy of Ms. magazine.

It had an article about a California legislator who was proposing name-change legislation.

Walker asked staff members to look into the issue, and they found only six states that specifically spell out the process for grooms to change their names.

In some states, men have to pay hundreds of dollars in fees to have their names legally changed by a judge.

Greg Kern, of the marriage license department at the Multnomah County Clerk's Office, said a groom is just as able as a bride to take his marriage certificate to the right agencies and take his wife's name as his own.

Even so, Walker's measure would spell that out in the law. With the amendment, the bill now goes back to the House. If the House agrees, it would go to Gov. Ted Kulongoski for his signature before it could become law.

Walker, by the way, took her husband's name when she got married. She said her maiden name was hard to pronounce.