This chapter assesses the current state of affairs in women’s naming choices in the U.S. and brings to light some cross-cultural comparisons. I became interested in the subject over the years through thinking about what women around me were doing about the surname issue when faced with marriage or partnership. Even though I am married, I never thought to take my husband’s surname. I have an independent identity as an academic woman; moreover, changing my name always meant ceding to a perceived more “powerful” member of a pair. That just would not do. Naming choices, like all linguistic choices, affect one’s personal as well as professional identity; however, this is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a deeper issue of societal power underlying surnames. Indeed, there is much more involved in the surname question than merely to change one’s name or not to change.