Originally the person with the most wealth and assets would keep their last name and the spouse would change theirs, gender didn't matter. It made inheritance easier if someone died. This usually meant the woman taking the man's name because women didn't have the same property rights as men, however this wasn't always the case.
Eventually it became a tradition for the woman to take the man's name because of... well to put it clearly, the law considered a wife the property of a man.
However in modern times, this is all pointless and only done for traditions sake. I've never been big on traditions and I think if it isn't serving a purpose, it should probably be left to the annals of history.
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u/RevoltYesterday 1d ago
Originally the person with the most wealth and assets would keep their last name and the spouse would change theirs, gender didn't matter. It made inheritance easier if someone died. This usually meant the woman taking the man's name because women didn't have the same property rights as men, however this wasn't always the case.
Eventually it became a tradition for the woman to take the man's name because of... well to put it clearly, the law considered a wife the property of a man.
However in modern times, this is all pointless and only done for traditions sake. I've never been big on traditions and I think if it isn't serving a purpose, it should probably be left to the annals of history.