Editing Surname (section)

== Surname law ==

A family name is typically a part of a person's [[personal name]] and, according to law or custom, is passed or given to children from at least one of their parents' family names. The use of family names is common in most cultures around the world, but each culture has its own rules as to how the names are formed, passed, and used. However, the style of having both a family name (surname) and a given name (forename) is far from universal (see [[#History|§History]] below). In many cultures, it is common for people to have one name or [[:wikt:mononym|mononym]], with some cultures not using family names. Issues of family name arise especially on the passing of a name to a newborn child, the adoption of a common family name on marriage, the renunciation of a family name, and the changing of a family name.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

[[Surname law]]s vary around the world. Traditionally in many European countries for the past few hundred years, it was the custom or the law for a woman, upon marriage, to use her husband's surname and for any children born to bear the father's surname. If a child's paternity was not known, or if the [[putative father]] denied paternity, the newborn child would have the surname of the mother. That is still the custom or law in many countries. The surname for children of married parents is usually inherited from the father.<ref name=":0">Kelly, 99 W Va L Rev at 10; see id. at 10 n 25 (The custom of taking the father's surname assumes that the child is born to parents in a "state-sanctioned marriage". The custom is different for children born to unmarried parents.). Cited in [http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/docs/A127262.htm#N_15_ Doherty v. Wizner, Oregon Court of Appeals] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112032/http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/docs/A127262.htm#N_15_|date=4 March 2016}} (2005)</ref> In recent years,<!-- When is this? --> there has been a trend towards equality of treatment in relation to family names, with women being not automatically required, expected or, in some places, even forbidden, to take the husband's surname on marriage, with the children not automatically being given the father's surname. In this article, both family name and surname mean the [[patrilineal]] surname, which is handed down from or inherited from the father, unless it is explicitly stated otherwise. Thus, the term "maternal surname" means the ''patrilineal'' surname that one's mother inherited from either or both of her parents. For a discussion of ''[[matrilineal]]'' ('mother-line') surnames, passing from mothers to daughters, see [[matrilineal surname]].{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}