Millennial grooms take spouse’s name 千禧一代新郎选择婚后随妻姓_BBC

Millennial grooms take spouse’s name 千禧一代新郎选择婚后随妻姓

随身英语 Millennial grooms take spouse’s name 千禧一代新郎选择婚后随妻姓

在英国，女性婚后随夫姓这个传统已延续了一千多年。然而，这一惯例究竟从何而来？时至今日，婚后从夫姓的现象仍然非常普遍吗？近来，在千禧一代人中，有越来越多的男性选择“夫随妇姓”。本集《随身英语》探讨随着时代发展而演变的命名惯例。

课文内容 Vocabulary: names 词汇: 名字

No one knows how long humans have been giving themselves names, but one thing is sure: surnames are a much more recent idea than given names. In Europe, surnames were developed to distinguish between individuals who had the same moniker. They were brought to the UK by the French nobility following the Norman Conquest around the 12th century and became common around the 14th century.

Another tradition that the Normans introduced was that of coverture. This was a law which said that a woman became a man's property when they got married. In those days, only a man could be the head of the family and allowed to own property. At this point the bride lost her maiden name. Over time, this has led to the tradition that upon marriage a woman relinquishes her maiden name and takes on her new husband’s family name.

Fast forward to the present. These days a woman choosing not to change her name to match her husband’s after marriage has long been a norm. The first recorded case is widely believed to be an American suffragette called Lucy Stone. When she got married in 1855, she refused to take her husband's name. After that, other ideas such as merging and double-barrelling also became common.