It really irks me!

Mistress definitely has a certain charm! :-)

I never kept mine, I often wish I had now. But when I got married in the 70s that was what you did it wasn’t even discussed.
I would now encourage any young woman to keep her birth name.

Why should you take your husbands name at all. You are and always will be your own person not a chattel of your husband.

Extremely unnecessary and outdated.

well yes but your birth name is another man's name too....

I changed to my husband's name on marriage and wore a wedding ring and was proud to.
When I taught we all used our married names if we were but I noticed in my husband's profession women were known by their maiden names, I did ask him why and got the answer to stop confusion when husband and wife are working in the same job in the same place.
My children use their own names professionally and their husbands socially I think this is confusing for their children.
It's a personal thing isn't it,
My mum always called her married friends whom she had known for a long time by their maiden names and when I think about it so do I.
What does irk me are letters addressed to Mrs. then my husbands initial and name.
Our names would have sounded silly double-barred like a lot of friends did. Too much of one letter.
An old saying that an aunt reminded me,
Change the name and not the letter, change for worse and not for better. I did and am happy she did and regretted it all her life.

I kept my name when I got married and my husband kept his... we've been together the better part of 30 years....
I answer to Miss, Mrs or Ms as they are all derived from the same word, 'mistress' ... If I am required to put a title on something I put my earned title but otherwise avoid it as it's usually of nobody's concern if I'm married or not, male or not...

Why any titles at all. I never use them.
Well done Izabella...no title for me just my name

I cringe at the tabloid press use of Kate Middleton, in the same way I used to cringe at their usage of terms such as 'Lady Di' or the 'Queen Mum'. As for the use of Ms, it was never invented to indicate a divorced woman, what nonsense! It came about because many women, myself included, consider our marital status irrelevant when we are, for example, requesting a gardening catalogue from an online supplier. As for letters to 'The Editor', that is just how they should be addressed, their gender is of no import to their position.

Why not, instead, ask why men aren't expected to change their names when they marry? That way, there's a bit of perspective on the question as to why women are expected to. It's dated, a bit sexist and really a matter of personal choice.

When I got married first time around, 50 years ago, I intended to keep my unusual surname at work but when I got back from honeymoon all my name labels had been replaced with my husbands very common surname. I still regret not kicking up a fuss. I don’t really see why women should lose their identity, we are not chattels anymore.

I'm not fussed really. I considered keeping my birth name when I got married as it's a common or garden, easy to spell one. My married name is anything but, but DD1 has chosen to keep it, with a Ms, through her marriage and after. DD2 prefers Mrs, and uses both names, depending on the circumstances. DDIL has gone full on Mrs and married name.

What irks me is when people are up in arms when someone gets it wrong. I used to have to send out a list of names annually and one divorced woman would always claim that what I'd called her was wrong. If I'd put Mrs she rang in a fury to remind me that she was no longer married to that bastard, the next year when I went for Ms she stomped into my office to remind me that she'd earned the title Mrs through the years she'd spent with said bastard. In the end I rang her every year to check what she wanted. I'd still get a telling off for not knowing.

Ms is a term, not for divorced women, but for those of us who do not wish to disclose our marital status ! Men are Mr irrespective of their marital status !

When we married (50 years ago) because my maiden name is rare we agreed for our names to be double surnames, however it was not until we signed the register that the vicar said they had made a mistake and only put my husband name down.
He said “mind you call yourself what you like”

Meghan is her middle name, so hardly a “stage name” Many non-actors choose or prefer their middle names

Ali08

Ms. is the shortened version of Mizz which notifies the woman is divorced!
Or, at least it did originally!!
So many things have been changed to suit new generations.

No it isn’t, and never was. It was a feminist response to the inherent sexism of men being called Mr. whether married or not, whereas women were identified by their marital status.

My married daughter incorporated her maiden name into her married name so is double barrelled. She is a doctor so doesn’t need the Mrs. Miss Ms thing as it annoys her that women need to announce their marital status. My other daughter uses my mum’s maiden name as her profession name as a book illustrator.

fluttERBY123

Someone I knew married a foreigner with whose name was difficult to pronounce. He changed his name by deed poll to hers, children known by her name. I felt terribly sorry for him. Reminds me of Prince Philip.

Why would you feel sorry for him? It was the choice he made which, I would guess, he didn't have to make.

I retained my maiden name on marriage as I am relatively well known in professional circles and it made things simpler.

My husband always books restaurants and hotels using my surname, much to the amusement of my parents and siblings, because it's easier to spell and he doesn't have to repeat himself every time.

I have been married for 51 years. I still use my own surname if I book anything, restaurants etc. I think of myself as still being that person, that name. To please convention at the time and my husband, I took his surname but I'm still me. Just because I'm a female, why should I have to give up my name. We discussed it in 1970, he was upset so I told him I'd change but not to forget, my surname is my dads. I don't like Mrs either call me by my Christian name, I'll answer.

I think I'm very old fashioned. I like being a Mrs and in formal situations I like being Mrs DH intial DH Surname.

That said, each to his/her own. Just use whatever title you prefer.

As for Catherine Windsor. I think the Palace encourage it as Kate Middleton makes her sound more normal and they need us to think they're just like we are or we wouldn't tolerate them.

Ali08

Ms. is the shortened version of Mizz which notifies the woman is divorced!
Or, at least it did originally!!
So many things have been changed to suit new generations.

www.grammarly.com/blog/ms-mrs-miss-difference/
Ms doesn’t mean divorced

I believe it is quite rare for younger women to change their surname on marriage now in Denmark where I live.

When I married, DH would quite have liked us to both use my surname, but I was so tired of having my Scottish surname misspelt, misfiled and never pronounced correctly that I opted for us both using his Danish surname.

In the instances you cite, OP, I imagine it is just the media either assuming that we all know these young women by their family name, or assuming that they, like most young wives nowadays ,would be offended by the use of their husbands' surname.

It could be a form of snobbery: insisting on telling us all the time that neither woman is of Royal birth!

I never wanted to get married or change my name but eventually had to conform. Kept my maiden name for work but then moved up north where it all got a bit confusing so I ended up as Mrs B.
Now happily divorced I’m back to my maiden name and Ms. I also address things to my adult daughters as Ms as consider their marital status to be no-one else’s business.
My own mother however insists on calling me Mrs (maiden name) as she feels that it’s more respectable at my age to be a Mrs

My neighbour changed his surname to his wife’s on marriage. I wonder how many others are out there?
I reverted to my maiden name on divorce. I used to hate the Ms title but now prefer it - and it does serve a purpose when you don’t know if you are addressing a Miss or a Mrs

I think of maidens dancing around a maypole with flowers in their hair. Nubile young virgins with flowing robes.
I'm the exact opposite. Lol.

greenlady102

well yes but your birth name is another man's name too....

Not necessarily greenlady unless you go back further generations. My birth mother was unmarried so my first surname was hers.
I agree that changing ones name on marriage is now outdated. Men have never had to indicate their marital status in this way.

I took DH's surname when we married 40 years ago. I wish now I'd kept mine as our line of the family has now died out. I could've double barrelled the 2 together & our children would've had it & I never thought to give it to them as middle names. Hindsight is great isn't it?!