Many women undergo family changes during graduate school, whether it's getting married -- or getting divorced. Men sometimes have similar experiences as it's not uncommon for couples to choose a common last name upon marriage, such as a hyphenated last name. Changing your name can pose a challenge for your career as you've likely already established an identity under your birth name; professors and colleagues identify you by your last name. If you have published articles or papers or presented at conferences, changing your last name may be even more disconcerting as the name change can cause confusion and loss of recognition within your field. Your colleagues may not be able to make the connection and will presume that you are two different individuals.
If you decide to change your surname, notify all personnel, colleagues, directors, supervisors, etc. of your name change through either a memo or an e-mail. But how do you handle prior publications? Obviously you cannot change already published articles. Many academics list their prior articles in their CV under their prior surname and then use an asterisk to indicate the name change.
Because of the loss of name recognition, some women prefer to keep their surname in some form. There are several alternatives:
- Hyphenate. Ex: Jane Smith marries Jack Miller and becomes Jane Smith-Miller.
- Make your last name your middle name and take your husbands surname as your surname. Ex: Jane Smith marries Jack Miller and becomes Jane Smith Miller. Additionally, a husband may change his name as well by taking his wife's last name as his middle name. Ex: Jack Smith Miller.
- Another possibility is to keep your birth name professionally, but change your name personally (i.e., in all other areas of life).
