It really struck me as something odd (I am not a native English speaker), I would have thought the answer would be that his mother's maiden name is the one she's bearing. However my Irish boyfriend claims one only"obtains" a maiden name once she gets married. In other words, is maiden name an equivalent of birth name for women?
Jan 22, 2017 at 2:00. @Andrew: the traditional usage in the U.S. is that the maiden name is used as a middle name, not as a surname. In previous centuries, some people gave only their sons and not their daughters middle names to leave room for the maiden name to be a middle name after they got married. – Peter Shor. Jan 22, 2017 at 3:04.
2. A maiden is an"unmarried" woman. Therefore, a woman's"maiden name" is her"unmarried" (last) name, the one she received from her father. A woman's married name is the one she receives from her husband. Some women nowadays do not take their husband's surname, and therefore continue to use their"maiden" name.
Née is used in French, and also in English, to describe a woman's last name (family name, surname) at birth. The more widely used term is her maiden name. Né, which is used much less often, indicates the birth last name of man, when his last name is now different. Most commonly, Née is used when a woman has changed her name due to marriage.
1. Appositive uses. a. Unmarried; now chiefly in maiden lady, maiden sister: see also maiden aunt. †b. Of a child: Female; see maiden-child (obs.). c. Virgin; sometimes said of men (obs.). 2. Of or pertaining to a maiden, or to maidenhood; befitting a maiden, having the qualities of a maiden. maiden name: the surname borne by a married woman ...
Maiden name for men. This 1995 piece from the New York Times says men can have a maiden name and that it's a totally gender-neutral term: Like most every other man have a first name and a last name. And I have a middle name -- Murray -- that I was given at birth, 35 years ago. But I have one other name, too. It's my maiden name.
The referenced URL did not place brackets around the maiden name. Also, in a list of classmates, the spouses would not not normally be given - the spouses were not, in general, part of the class. However, if you are listing the people invited to an event, you can decide how to display both the names of those invited and the names that would have been known when they were in the class.
The term"maiden name" is only used to describe the name that a woman had before marriage, and as such, is not gender neutral. However, it occasionally occurs that a man will take his partner's last name, or they will choose a different last name altogether, so this doesn't work in all cases.
16. It is proper to refer her as Ms Smith (for example) regardless of her martial status. Since the woman in question kept her maiden name, I would opt for this title or use the appropriate occupational title (e.g. Doctor Smith, Professor Smith, Major Smith, etc.) Miss is a title for an unmarried woman, and is not acceptable.
As changing names multiple times in life, or reverting to a maiden name after divorce is a more modern occurrence, we don't have an historical word stolen from some other language. Share Improve this answer