Peace Love & Burpees

Someone recently asked me if I would be the kind of woman that would change her name when I decided to get married, or if I would keep it and hyphenate it with my husbands last name. That definitely got me thinking…..
Has it always been the tradition that when a woman gets married, she takes her husbands last name as her own?
Sort of! Back then women did it to protect their assets and land as well as to be associated as a woman belonging to a man. Women were property, not someone who could own land or have assets on her own. Things are very different nowadays, and women have options to be independent of a man….. yet it is still tradition to change your name.

Growing up I remember it a little differently because of my parents. In Mexico its a little different. My mother was Lynda Dominguez Garcia when she was growing up. Dominguez is my grandfathers last name and Garcia is my grandmothers last name. My father was Carlos Cruz Lara, Cruz being his fathers last name and Lara his mothers. So as a child if someone asked me my name I always replied Sophie Cruz Dominguez (or toti cuz cominez when i was 3 and couldn’t pronounce the words).

It wasn’t until I got older that I stopped using the “Dominguez’ as part of my name. And the only reason for that was because the schools did not recognize the mothers last name as part of our own.

In America it is not customary to have 2 last names. That is the tradition in Mexico. But being a Mexican American raised with Mexican values, it can serve as a lot of confusion when you are growing up.

So, Sophie Cruz…. sheesh, its the name of my blog LOL- how can I let it go?? Its the name that was given to me and the name that I respond to.

Do I believe in tradition? yes
Do I believe in having the same name as your husband and children? yes

Then why the attachment?? Its like the end of an era…. I wont be me the individual anymore…. I would be the wife of someone.

I know its a weird reasoning, but I never thought I would be the kind of woman that would consider changing her name. And here I am….. considering it. I guess we shall see what happens when the time comes. In the meantime….. SOPHIE CRUZ will continue to rock it!