what’s in a name? the significance of surnames to australian parents

Text line

What’s in a name? The significance of surnames to Australian parents

Deborah Dempsey, Swinburne University of Technology

Jo Lindsay, Monash University

Lara Hulbert Mainka, Swinburne University of Technology

Text line

[email protected] is work-in-progress. Please do not cite without permission.Full results summary will be available by end of this year on on our project website: http://whatsinanameaus.wordpress.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://whatsinanameaus.wordpress.com/

Text line

SwinburneWhat’s in a name?

- Beck-Gernsheim (2005) surnames ‘individualised’: have lost their conventional significance. Processes of negotiation, compromise rather than ‘tradition’ at the fore

- Finch (2007) ‘Displaying families’: brings to the fore performative considerations about the visibility and status of family relationships- (2008) ‘Naming names’ surnaming raises issues of relatedness to

others past and present, and personal identity

- Nugent (2010) surnaming practices continue to instantiate ‘patriarchal dividend’ for men: case study of gender relations more broadly

3

Conceiving the sociological significance of surnames:

Text line


- No Australian studies we know of- Overwhelming majority of US-resident women (between 90 and 95%)

assume their husband’s name upon marriage (see Brightman 1994; Johnson & Scheuble 1995; Goldin & Shim 2004; Gooding & Kreider 2009)- Norway, 80% assume husband’s name (Noack & Aarskaug 2008)

- Education, political liberalism and age of marriage effects. - Women who keep their surnames tend to be more highly educated than

women who don’t (Gooding & Krieder 2009) and older at the age they marry (Noack & Aarskaug 2008). Political liberalism also good predictor of unconventional surname choices by married women in US and Norway.

4

Existing studies: Surnaming and couple relationships

Text line


- One US based study located on children’s surnames when married women retained their own name (Johnson & Scheuble 2002) - 90% of the children had father’s surname.- No studies of cohabiting couples’ child surnaming practices

- Qualitative research into same-sex couples views/beliefs about family names (Clark, Burns and Burgoyne 2008; Almack 2005)- Parents and would-be parents reflect carefully on the social

implications of naming decisions, much less relevant to couples without children

5

Existing studies: Children’s surnames

Text line


- Do Australian family naming trends follow those reported in the international literature?

- To what extent are family names explicitly discussed and negotiated between members of same-sex and heterosexual couples?

- How do parents’ decisions about children’s names reflect their broader preoccupations with the relational dimensions and socio-legal status of couple and extended family relationships?

- Is there evidence of a perceived ‘patriarchal dividend’ for men in the decision-making processes couples undertake regarding family names?

- Are there ‘moments’ or situations in the trajectory of family lives in which the relational significance of names takes on heightened importance?

6

Research questions

Text line


- Target group: parents who have conceived their children in a same-sex or heterosexual relationship

- Mixed-methods study, three data sources:- Quantitative:

- Anonymised customised queries generated from birth registration records held by the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (population data)

- Online survey of Australian heterosexual and same-sex relationship parents August 2011- April 2012 (non-representative, volunteer sample)

7

Methodology

Text line


- Recruitment strategies web-based (parenting forums, blogs, Rainbow Family Council email list, staff newsletters at Swinburne and Monash Universities). Also media release and related coverage, postcard mailout to a range of children’s/health services.

- Research approved by Swinburne and Monash Human Research Ethics Committees

8

Methodology

Qualitative: -Subset of in-depth telephone interviews with survey participants (ongoing, 29 of 40-50 completed so far)

Text line

SwinburneWhat’s in a name

9

Results

Text line


10

Online survey: Participants’ characteristics

Text line


11

Participants’ characteristics

Text line


12


Text line


13


Text line


14

Online survey results: Parents’ surnames

Text line


15

Online survey results: parents’ surnames

Text line


16


Text line


17


Text line


- Choice of surname is differentiated according to gender:- Men rarely change their surnames – 97% of men in our sample had kept

their surname (general population figure likely to be higher)- Women are more likely to change their surname than men and when they

do they are likely to take on their partners surname – 96% of married women who changed their names took on their partners surname.

- Surnames are strongly differentiated according to relationship type and particularly marriage:- 51% of our total sample of parents have the same surname as a partner- Same surname is normative for married heterosexual couples – 64% in

our sample have the same surname (not representative sample!)- Different surnames is normative for other relationship types- Same-sex couples more likely to change name than heterosexual

cohabiters (small numbers in our online survey but BDM data on children’s names provides further evidence of this)

18

Summary: Parents’ surnames

Text line


1 January 2005 to 31 December 2010 (inclusive).

- Included records are based on the date of birth rather than the date of registration.

- - Data extracted on 20

March 2012

19

Text line


- Births registered in Victoria, to same-sex-couple parents since the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008, and amendments to the Status of Children Act 1974 and the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996, came into effect on 1 January 2010.

- Data extracted on 6 February 2012

20

Text line


21

Online survey results: children’s surnames

Text line


- 55% of Victorian children are born to couples who share the same surname (our survey data indicates this will usually be the father’s name)

- Most children born to differently surnamed mothers and fathers take their father’s name

- Indications are that in the vicinity of 90% of Victorian children with a named father have their father’s surname (consistent with US data)

- Of children born to lesbian couples, there is not a singular dominant trend, but favouring either partner’s name is less popular than bestowing a surname that reflects the couple.

22

Summary: Children’s surnames

Text line


- Why does taking husband’s name continue to be popular for the majority of married women?- Taken for granted that men will keep theirs or not up for

discussion- Reasons associated with belonging: to partner,

children and family accentuated by women- Many women feel uncomfortable having different name

from their children

23

Discussion

Text line


- Why do most children born to married and unmarried heterosexual couples continue to be given their fathers’ surnames, when their mother has made the decision to retain her own?- It continues to be taken for granted- Wanting to validate/legitimise father/child relationship in

absence of marriage (women in cohabiting relationships)

- Influence of paternal extended family and wanting to acknowledge them

- Would mark family out as ‘very different’ or ‘radical’ to do otherwise

- Women perceive their partners would resist doing otherwise

-

24

Discussion

Text line


- Surnaming children is the outcome of considerable discussion and negotiation among unmarried heterosexual couples and lesbian couples in comparison to married couples:- More married couples share a surname- Greater symbolic importance of names for unmarried

couples in ‘displaying family’ (cf Finch 2010)- Implications of different surnames come to the fore in

specific institutional settings (health care and school)

25

Discussion

Text line


- Thanks to Erin Keleher and Lara Klass from the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Department of Justice, for their assistance with the customised data queries

- We would also like to thank the survey and interview participants for sharing their personal/family stories

- This research was supported by a Swinburne University Research Development Grant, with additional funding provided by the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University

26

Acknowledgements

what’s in a name? the significance of surnames to australian parents

Documents