Could Your Name Be Worth Over $500,000?
A recent Dutch study at the University of Tilburg is concluding that women who keep their maiden names after marriage are seen as more professional and more likely to win good jobs and earn higher pay. The University professors estimated that this would equal out to over $500,000 over the course of a woman's career, simply because she kept her name.
As reported on SmartMoney.com, "According to the Dutch data, women who kept their names had higher average education levels and fewer children, and that they worked more and had higher salaries." The study found that women who did not change their names were viewed as independent and ambitious, whereas women who did take their husbands' names were "judged to be caring, dependent and emotional".
Though we'd like to believe that we've uncovered an easy way to ensure earning an extra half-million dollars, here at Name Candy we're debating which is really the cause and which is really the effect in this odd study.
Though there are many reasons why a woman may choose to keep her maiden name after marriage (because your new husband's last name is the same as your first name, for example), one of the reasons may be that she has already built a career identity with her maiden name before getting married. If a woman works in any industry requiring name recognition (author, professor, actress, doctor, business owner, etc.) then her current name is an important part of her success. This woman is probably earning more money not because she kept her maiden name, but because her career is so successful that her name holds enough weight to be worth keeping.
And of course, plenty of successful women get married before starting their careers, so their married name becomes important to their careers in the same way. Julia Child, for example, took her husband Paul Child's last name almost 15 years before she published her first cook book.
In related news, take a look at what Laura Wattenberg had to say about a recent LinkedIn study that reported the most popular names for CEOs.
What do you think- does this study prove that ambitious women keep their maiden names?
--M.F.
Comments
It is important to not confuse correlation with causation. Just because two variables correlate does not mean one causes the other. Keeping your maiden name does not cause you to earn more money. However, other characteristics about the women contribute to both keeping one's name and higher income for instance marrying later and so delaying having children which leads to beginning and establishing a career before having them (and thus to a higher income) and taking fewer breaks and shorter breaks for childcare (which also leads to an overall higher income).
I second Anonymous' thoughts on the subject. I never took my husband's last name, but I am a stay at home mom of two (adorable) girls. However the only payment I receive for this tireless task (as we all know) is love, which I'm fine with, but it's not going to be earning me $500,000 more a year, lol! I think personality has more to do with it.
It could also be that a first name + maiden name was chosen carefully for harmonious effect, whereas a first name + married name is down to chance. We all know people with names like Jenny Penny, Heather Feather and Alison Allison. Most of them were NOT named that way originally. I swapped an Irish last name that echoed the vowell in my first name for an Old German last name that has a hard "Od" at the beginning. The name is much less harmonious. (I am, BTW, a writer!)
I think that keeping your name if you've already gone through professional training or have a career started is good in any field. Networking is a massive part of having a professional job, and it's really hard to find people, give references via email etc. if you don't know what they're called.
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