Name changes in 2004: Education and cohort predict keeping a birth surname — identity as labour-market

When the string on the file must move — marriage, migration, gender, safety and the paperwork that follows a new name. A name change is less a poetic rebirth than a migration of keys: passport, bank, school, publisher, people-search sites. People change names for marriage, divorce, adoption, naturalisation, gender transition, safety, pronunciation or a fresh start. The reasons are human; the process is clerical.

This page maps paths and frictions. It does not tell you that a new name will change your fate — only that it will change your paperwork. Do I have to change my name when I marry? Only if local law or household rules say so. Japan’s koseki has required one married surname; many other systems make change optional.

The UK deed-poll path is not a universal solvent. U.S. states, Germany and Japan each have their own instruments. Did immigrants gain by Anglicising names? Biavaschi, Giulietti and Siddique found some historical U.S. earnings links after Americanisation — a description of a biased market, not a duty.