got me thinking about why do women take the last name of their husbands.
Coincidentally, I was reading Simon Winchester's book, 'The River at the Center of the World,' where I came across this interesting fact: "the Moso - a people related to the Nakhi, who lived on the northern side of the Yangtze and whose practices are more rigorously matriarchal than their country cousins. For instance, their family names pass down from mother to daughter."
So I hopped online and asked the great and wise Google, 'why do women take the last name of the husbands?"
Here is what Wiki-Answers had to say: "In earlier times, women were considered property, so they took on their "owners" last name. Slaves took on their owners' last names, too; that is why not many African Americans have African last names.
Nowadays it is a choice to take on a husband's last name; some do it out of convention or tradition but it is not mandatory; some combine last names or even take on the wife's name (rare). Practices also vary in gay marriages."
Some other answers I found: Men lack the ability to change. or, women take everything else, why not the man's name too.
But as a Jewish question, Jewishness passes from mother to child. The reason for this matriarchal lineage descent is because while we may not always know who is the father, you always know who is the mother.
So specifically for Jews, wouldn't it make more sense for the man to take the woman's last name?
