Women generally take their husband's name when they marry, and children generally are given the father's name at birth... but neither of those are required by law.

        In Tennessee, and virtually every other state, a woman can keep her own last name when she marries... or she can add her name to her husband's name to form a hyphenated name, such as Smith-Jones, or she could take an entirely new last name when she marries, such as changing her maiden name of Jones to Brown even though her husband's name was Smith.  Men are also free to change their name or keep it the same when they get married.

        In fact, though few people do it, it is perfectly legal to change your name at anytime, whether you are getting married or divorced or are staying married or have never been married.  And you don't need to go to court to do it.  (I changed my own name several years ago without ever going to court.)

        Tennessee's Supreme Court addressed the issue in the case of Dunn v. Palermo, discussing at length the history of names and name changes.  The the decision specifically addressed the right of a married woman to keep her own name without adopting the last name of her husband, but it also generally discussed the right of anyone to change his or her name at anytime, quoting with approval from many other court cases looking at the same issue.  The Dunn court made clear that Tennessee's original state constitution of 1796, the state adopted the common law as it then existed, and since later Tennessee constitutions did the same thing , the first question is what the common law allowed regarding name changes when Tennessee became a state, and then you need to look at whether any Tennessee legislation has clearly repealed or altered the common law on the issue.  The Dunn court stated that:

 
    A name is a word or phrase that constitutes the distinctive designation of a person or thing. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (8th ed. 1974)....
    By the fourth year of the reign of Edward IV (1465), statutes were adopted requiring the use of surnames....  Apparently, surnames were adopted and abandoned at will, and it was not unusual for one person to have several surnames in the course of a lifetime. [page 681]
    The common law tended to place more stress on the baptismal than the surname.
    We adopted... the common law of England as it existed in 1776....  Volume 12, Encyclopedia of the Laws of England, 53 (1898 - London), under the heading, Surname, reads in pertinent part:
  A person usually bears the surname of his father, but
  if he so pleases he may change it for another name,
  and it is not necessary that he should take any
  formal step to effectuate this (Davies v. Lowndes,
  1835, J. Bing. N.C. 618) unless, indeed he changes
  his name in compliance with the injunction of a name
  and arms clause . . .
                *   *   *   *   *   *
  Except where the name to be assumed is prescribed by
  a name and arms clause, a person is at liberty to
  choose and bear any name he likes....
    The acquisition of a surname by repute figures very prominently in a change of name under English law.  [page 682]   Speaking generally, the (common law of  England) allow(ed) any person to assume and use any name, provided its use is not calculated to deceive and to inflict pecuniary loss.
    In Volume 20, American Journal of Comparative Law, page 606 (1972) it is said:
  In English law, contrary to the law of most
  countries, there are no rules about legal names. The
  surname of any person, male or female, is the name by
  which he or she is generally known, provided that the
  name was not assumed for any fraudulent purpose.
[Page 683]
    (In the case of Stuart v. Board of Supervisors of Elections, 266 Md. 440, 295 A.2d 223 (1972).... the Maryland Court of Appeals, in a brilliant and scholarly opinion by Chief Judge Murphy said:
  We have heretofore unequivocally recognized the
  common law right of any person, absent a statute to
  the contrary, to "adopt any name by which he may
  become known, and by which he may transact business
  and execute contracts and sue or be sued." Romans v.
  State, 178 Md. 588, 597, 16 A.2d 642, 646.
[Page 686]
  We hold that a person's legal name is that given at birth, or as voluntarily changed by...by affirmative [Page 688] acts as provided under the Constitution and laws of the State of Tennessee. So long as a person's name remains constant and consistent, and unless and until changed in the prescribed manner, and absent any fraudulent or legally impermissible intent, the State has no legitimate concern.  [Page 689]


        In a nutshell this means you can change your name either by using the statutory provisions allowing a person to go to court for a court Order for a name change.... or you can simply let everyone know you are going to go by a new name.  And so long as the name change is not to avoid criminal prosecution or creditors, it's perfectly legal.... though only the statutory procedure and a court order can get the State of Tennessee to reissue a new birth certificate with the new name.  (In fact, if you look carefully at the statute it is apparent that the only reason for the statute is to create a procedure to get a new birth certificate issued, and that it does not in any way actually require a court order to change a name, just to get a new birth certificate issued with the new name on it.)

         Divorced women who don't have the court change their name when they get the divorce often believe changing their name later would require a court order.  That's not the case.  And husbands in divorce sometimes think they can force their wives to give up the husband's last name when the divorce is final... but that's not the case either.  Tennessee courts have no authority to force anyone to change their name, even in a divorce.  The right to change a name is a right held exclusively by the person whose name would be changed.

        All you have to do is to let people know the new name you wish to use, and advise your creditors of the change.  Viola.  You have just changed your name.  It may take you a while to get around to having it changed on all of your official documents, but so long as you are not changing your name to avoid creditors or to avoid criminal prosecution, the name change is legal.

        So why does anyone go to court to get their name changed?  Well, most attorneys don't charge much for it, and it's often easier to deal with Social Security and the license bureau and the like if you bring in a copy of a court order.  It's amazing how much grief a petty bureaucrat can give you when you try convincing them that you can change your name without a court order.

        Parents likewise could give a child the mother's last name at birth, or give the child a last name entirely different from either parent (though I have no idea why a person would wish to do so).

        With children the question generally arises after a divorce, or when a divorced mother with custody of a child remarries.  The mother often would like to change the child's last name.  The law is unclear in this area.  The parent with legal custody might have authority to change the child's name without the approval or even the knowledge of the non-custodial parent.

        However the non-custodial parent also has parental rights, and some judges might well take the position that the non-custodial parent's approval is required before changing a name.  But an unmarried mother is free to name her child without any input from the father... so the divorced mother with custody might also be able to change a child's name without the father's approval.

        So far the appellate courts have provided no clear answer.

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