ction and practice of many feminists
without understanding that this is a real problem to be settled surely
before the marriage ceremony. There is already in the field a "Lucy
Stone League" to give the support of the practice of a great and
beloved woman to the fashion of keeping one's own name. The question
of the desirability of having children bear the same name as both
parents is left for the most part in abeyance by those who thus
advocate two names for the married couple. It may be that each child
is expected to bear as a second name his mother's and as a last name
his father's family name, as, for example, John Jones Jackson, Jones
being the mother's and Jackson the father's personal signature; but
when the child marries, by what name shall the family line be carried
on?

To most of us who see in the family name adopted by both husband and
wife at marriage a sign of family unity not to be lost without serious
embarrassment to offspring, and some danger of easy drifting apart
without the knowledge of others, the name seems not to be of vital
importance. Why, then, it is asked, should the woman always give up
her family connection as indicated by inherited name, and the man
retain his? The fact that the custom has grown up by reason of the
legal absorption of the wife's life in that of the husband is obvious,
and gives much color to the claim that now, when a woman is a
recognized personality in the law whether married or single, she
should keep the name by which her personality has become known. That
is easily seen to be advantageous in the case of professional women of
wide influence. The great singer, the great writer, any creative
genius or artist, continues, as a rule, to be known by the name under
which greatness has been achieved. In such cases, however, women often
bear two names, the professional name either of family inheritance or
a chosen _nom de plume_, and the social name, which is their husband's
and engraved on calling cards. The tendency now is increasing to keep
the one designation to which one is born and make no concessions to
conventional nomenclature. It must be remembered that in such cases it
is the father's name by which the married daughter is called and the
mother's maiden name is lost with all the rest of the silent majority
of her sex. The fact that men have given the wedded name for ages, and
that men are most often senior partners in the marriage firm, and the
fact that any other sug