Maiden Names

A male friend (who's divorced) asked me what I thought about asking your ex to change her married name BACK to her maiden name.

I had no clue really, despite being divorced, since I never changed my name and never changed it back.

Behind his question is his desire that she change it -- essentially release HIS name -- and return to hers. She doesn't want to.

I'd never thought of it from a man's point of view, that he might want his ex to stop bearing his name. And that she would want to retain it.

If I had changed my name, I would want to go back to my original name ... but it's moot as I can't now and couldn't then imagine changing my name anyway.

Going to think more about this over here at Misbehaving.Net. You can comment there too.