Man Files Lawsuit to Take Wife's Name
By GREG RISLING, Associated Press Writer
Friday, January 12, 2007
(01-12) 11:17 PST Los Angeles (AP) --
Mike Buday isn't married to his last name. In fact, he and his fiancee decided before they wed that he would take hers.
But Buday was stunned to learn that he couldn't simply become Mike Bijon when they married in 2005.
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Only six states — Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York and North Dakota — have statutes establishing equal name-change processes for men and women when they marry. In California and other states, men cannot choose a different last name while filing a marriage license.
In California, a man who wants to take his wife's name must file a petition, pay more than $300, place a public notice for weeks in a local newspaper and then appear before a judge.
Because of Buday's case, a California state lawmaker has introduced a bill to put a space on the marriage license for either spouse to change names.
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Bijon, 28, approached Buday about the idea when they were dating. She had no brothers but wanted to prolong the family name. Buday, a 29-year-old developer of interactive advertising, was estranged from his own father and was not attached to his own last name.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2007/01/12/national/a111701S21.DTL