Hi everyone! I would love to hear the experience of people (likely women) who have changed their last name (likely after marriage) when they are somewhat into an established career.
I have a few reputable publications and recently earned my PhD under my maiden name. I’m 31 and still relatively early-mid in my career but have the impression my current last name is associated with at least one of those studies.
I’m currently working in industry (Engineering, if it helps) but would like to keep publishing and leave the door ajar for academia later on.
I am getting married soon and would like to change my name to my future husband’s but feel like professionally it is unadvised and might present hiccups. I don’t want to hyphenate.
Anyone who has changed their name with a few publications under their belt – can you please advise on your experience and how it’s been for you? Is it as simple as just mentioning your previous maiden name when talking about your past work? Alternatively – did you keep your legal maiden name but go by your partner‘s socially?
Thanks in advance 🙂
Comments
ORCID iDs are designed for this very instance (and others). It’s a free identifier that you can attach to your academic work and it displays the names you’ve published under. This is a digital resource and doesn’t do much for conference presentations or other in-person interactions, but it’s helpful for centralizing your work and managing your digital academic footprint.
https://www.orcid.org
I have a close friend who uses her maiden name professionally (all of her publications, for instance, use that) and her married name socially and in all other contexts not related to her job. The only hiccup she had was with our university’s HR not understanding that she didn’t want to change her email address and all that.
This is a major issue for women especially. It’s impossible to change your name to things previously published. I recommend keeping your maiden name for your professional publications even if you change your name to match your partner’s. If you change, people will look you up on pubmed but won’t see your previous work under your maiden name.
I use my maiden name professionally- it’s like my alter ego; I call it my ‘nom de plume’. But, if I had it to do again, I would change to it my legal name. It gets very complicated with “preferred names” and signing contacts with legal names, etc. it always leads to confusion at both institutes I have been at (federal and state). I felt like the transition period would just be too difficult but honestly it’s really not. I have seen others do it, even publishing one or two hyphenated papers to assist w readers transition (even if that isn’t your legal name).
Don’t change your name! It’s a huge headache. Besides, I enjoy hearing my colleagues call my husband Mr. Mylastname. My family addresses Christmas cards to me with my husband’s last name. Otherwise it just isn’t an issue.
Similar to other comments here, I use my maiden name for anything university related and publications. I did legally change my last name when I got married, so payroll and tax things use my legal name. Anything public facing, like the university directory and my email, have my maiden/scientific name. It really hasn’t caused any issues for me. You do need to repeatedly state to anyone involved in hiring that you want to use your maiden name for public-facing things, and they can accommodate that.
A mentor of mine published her first book before changing her name, as "Jane H. Smith." Then she changed her name and started publishing as "Jane Smith Jones." Now students just call her Dr. Jones (not Dr. Smith Jones as they would if she’d hyphenated), and I think some of her more recent publications are as "Jane S. Jones," but having her big second book out with both surnames on it seems to have really helped people make the connection. I asked her advice when I was planning on changing my name (currently in the process of doing that!) and she said the approach she took has worked pretty well for her.
Seconding another commenter’s recommendation to use ORCID as well!
(Humanities field; ymmv.)
I’m trans and also married , so changed both. I write my name as is and then square bracket my old name. That’s common when referencing trans authors and will be understandable across the board I would think!
Another option is to change your name legally, but keep going by your maiden name (or by a hyphenated name) professionally.
I changed my last name mid-PhD, after I had a few publications under my maiden name. I have had no issues with maintaining my publication record. My CV has my name bolded for all my publications, and I note that I published with my maiden name prior to 2021. Google Scholar, ResearchGate, ORCiD, Scopus, etc. all have the option to attach your maiden name as an alternative name and ensure that all your publications are correctly assigned to you from before/after the name change.
Changing your name is a personal decision. I love my new name, and it was absolutely the right decision for me on a personal level. I’ve had no repercussions in academia from this decision, and I wouldn’t let that dictate your decision.
I kept my maiden name and go by my married name socially. I did not find it worth it to go through the headache of changing it and my maiden name is more unique than my married name.
A colleague of mine now publishes as [First, Maiden, Last]. So for example she now publishes as Amy Chang Smith to keep some association from when she was just Amy Chang.
I changed my last name post PhD with some 7-8 publications under my maiden name. Haven’t really faced any problems with publishing under the new one, orcid helps and I keep my maiden name in brackets in my university page. Sometimes it’s a bit funny when people realise only after a little while that “oh you are that person too”, but it has never really been a problem for anything