What's in a name?

Firstly, I'd like to apologise, I'm about to talk about the "other" royal wedding.

So, it has been widely reported Zara Phillips will not be taking her husband's surname, for professional reasons. This article has an interesting take on it. As it states, it was not the norm in Scotland until the 20th century. Why? Because women were not regarded as property in the same way as down south, say. Hence women never having had to "love, honour and obey" in the wedding vows up here.

I have to wonder how far we've come in women's rights when, where a women chooses not to take her husband's surname on marriage, has to justify herself. Zara Phillips has had to say it's for professional reasons. I have a friend who didn't take her husband's name for the same reasons. Can't we just not take our husband's names and not really have a reason? Not have to justify ourselves? Now, that would be progress.

Sometimes, men even take their wives names on marriage. Tam Dalyell's Dad took his wife's name. That's unusual, I know. Our names are personal. In many ways they define us. If someone chooses to change or not change their name in marriage, that should be okay. They shouldn't need to justify it as the women in the public eye who had kept their own names have done.