Like Meghan Markle, 80% of women take their husband’s surname after marriage. But experts warn it’s a big gamble

During a candid chat with the comedian and actress Mindy Kaling, the Duchess of Sussex confirmed her new royal surname, after her close friend Kaling called her by her maiden name.

“You have kids, and you go: ‘No, I share my name with my children,’” the royal opened up about the personal importance of the name she now shares with her husband, Prince Harry, and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. 

“‘I didn’t know how meaningful it would be, but it just means so much to go: “This is our family name, our little family name.”’

Meghan took the Sussex title, bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth II, on the day she married Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, in 2018. 

The former Suits actress reiterated the new surname “means a lot to me” in a rare interview with People magazine ahead of her new cooking and lifestyle show’s release on March 4. And on Wednesday, Drew Barrymore introduced her as Meghan Sussex in a clip of her appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, which airs later today.

And while the title she inherited is certainly unique, the tradition of taking a family name—or specifically, a husband’s name—is not. In fact, 79% of women still take their husband’s surname after marriage, data from Pew Research shows. And just 23% of unmarried American women say they’d keep their last name after saying “I do”—compared to 73% of men. But what’s the big deal? 

New surname? It’s a ‘big gamble’

For the Duchess of Sussex, who’s already a global phenomenon, a name change will “just shift her brand into slightly new, and already recognizable, royal, territory,” Ben Alalouff, chief strategy officer at the marketing agency, Live & Breathe tells Fortune. “But for most individuals, it’s a much bigger gamble.”

Alalouff, who has worked on building brand experience for major global brands including Carlsberg, Nestle and Just Eat, says your name is your core marketing tool: “Tamper with it, and you could lose all the stored value you’ve built.”

“A personal brand thrives on continuity,” he adds. “So, unless carefully launched and managed, there’s no avoiding the short-term confusion, and in the long-term, it can dilute your carefully built identity, weakening your reputation.”

Before risking a full reset of your personal branding, Alalouff advises asking yourself what you’re set to gain professionally from the new surname. 

Consider these key questions:

• Does the new name provide greater clarity about who you are or what you do?
• Will it be easier to remember?
• Does it enhance your recognizability or better align with your industry?
• Could it help you stand out from competitors or avoid confusion with someone else?

“If the answer is no, a name change is detrimental,” he stresses. “Proceed with the utmost caution.”

“A name needs to be discoverable and rediscoverable; what’s the point of a name if it doesn’t help others identify and reidentify you?”

Factors to consider: SEO and discrimination

Jenny Holliday knows all too well how significant a name is. Having been a journalist since 2001, her name—or byline—was very well established by the time she tied the knot at 45 years old in 2022. 

But the now career coach says switching up her surname, from Stallard, felt like a “renaissance.” 

“I found it quite freeing to change my name,” she says, adding that switching careers at the same time made that transition smoother, as she was starting from a clean slate anyway. “Most people know me as Jenny Holliday the coach.” 

It’s exactly the sort of scenario where a name change could actually be helpful instead of a hindrance. As the leadership coach Debbie Danon explains, changing your name isn’t inherently good or bad. It’s just “losing that brand in favor of a different brand.”

She’s had clients who have taken their spouse’s surname, and clients who haven’t. Danon herself did not change her name after getting married—after all, with only one other Debbie Danon in the U.K. (who’s a pharmacist) and just six others with her name on LinkedIn, she’s built a distinct professional identity.

“When brands go through a rebrand, they do it at a moment in time for a particular reason. They want to appeal to different customers, or they want to expand their reach or modernize,” she says. “The fact is, there was no reason other than starting this life together to rebrand myself.”

“I needed there to be a more compelling reason if I was going to have to reintroduce myself to people, if people are going to look for me but not find me when they search for me.”

Holliday got around that by keeping Stallard in brackets on her LinkedIn profile, but she’s now considering dropping it to her biography. 

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“The world of work will catch up. People will get used to it,” she advises. “Be consistent—if you do change, change everywhere. Be clear to followers and clients what you are choosing. You could even do a post on socials or your website to clarify.”

Danon echoes that if you’re going to change your name, you could treat it like a relaunch. 

“What does this mean for you? How do you feel different? And what’s new about this brand? Let’s actually drill down, not just for the sake of it, but what is it that you want to say with this,” she says, adding that for some people a simple “same old me, but new name” post may suffice. 

There’s one aspect of changing your name though, that no LinkedIn post can solve—and that’s discrimination. 

“People are particularly nosy with younger women who’ve just gotten married,” Danon warns, adding that one of her clients was straight-out asked by a manager whether she will be “buggering off” to have a baby.

Of course, not all women who marry and change their surname will have kids. Yet, with the motherhood penalty very much alive and well, just signaling that you’re settling down could negatively shift how you’re perceived at work.