Die rechtshistorische Entwicklung des Ehenamens

Abstract

In tracing the origins of married names, one does not have to travel back very far in legal history. Until the late 18 th century, a surname was not determined by law, but followed the customs and traditions of society. This also applies to the married name, i.e. the name a woman acquires by virtue of marriage. During the Middle Ages, it had become customary for the nobility and for townspeople to add a surname to their Christian name, and it had consequently become common practice to name a woman after her husband. This was, however, a matter of social custom, not of law. In Germany and Austria, laws applying to name changes upon marriage were first seen in the codifications of the Enlightenment. Now it became the law for a woman to adopt her husband’s name on marriage. This was influenced by the perception that as a woman assumed her husband’s social status on marriage she should assume his name as well. European codifications have, however, been divided on the issue of married names from the start and still are. Common surnames for spouses is a concept that laws of German-speaking origin tend to make obligatory, whereas this concept is mostly unknown to jurisdictions following the Napoleonic Code. It was inevitable for the rules of the German-speaking section to get into conflict with ideas filtering in from sex equality discourse. Further developments in this area are affected by the notion that a woman has equal rights with- in the family. One may discern the following trends: ? Enforcement of formal equality of the sexes in the law of family names, ? Plural naming options upon marriage, ? Devaluation of the married name and the family name in general by having too many options. Sex equality was attained in stages; these are traced by looking at German law.