Take My Hand, But Not My Twitter Handle: Maiden Names in Social Media?

Basically, this is just something I’ve noticed.  My friend’s 70-something year old grandmother is on Facebook.  She has her maiden name on there.  This is a lady who probably hasn’t used her maiden name for 50 years or so, but she’s using it again on her Facebook profile.  Same thing with my other friend’s mom, who recently added her maiden name to her Facebook profile.  I also noticed recently married peeps either not changing their Facebook names at all, or keeping their maiden names on their profiles and sticking the new hubby’s name on the end.

The maiden name debockle has long been a soul-searching situation for women, and I feel like it’s gotten more complicated over the years.  It’s gone from “what will I do with my business cards?” to “what will I do with my email?” to “what will I do with my LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook accounts?”  (And if you’re super nerdy like me, “What will I do with my URL?”) Yikes!

Obviously, the issues to contemplate transcend the importance of social media. “Do I want the same last name as my children?” and “Who am I if I am not a Johnson (insert your maiden name here)?” are thoughts to ponder. Some may say to keep your maiden name for business purposes and use your new name in your personal life.  But thanks to social technology, we live in an increasingly networked world in which business and personal relationships are harder to distinguish.

My thought is that women who are either adding or keeping their maiden names on Facebook  are doing so because they want old friends who don’t know their new last names to be able to find them.  I think the fact of the matter is (even for people who don’t work in marketing and may not give a rip about this so-called personal branding) that your maiden name is sort of like your brand name.  Getting involved with social media, whether or not you use it for business, means you have to establish or re-establish your identity to fit your social networking needs.

I think for ladies my age and up, the problem is easier to solve now than it will be for future brides.  I’m 22, and even the girls that have been involved with social media since their tween days were probably on Myspace.  They probably had really clever usernames like “BSB4Life” and such, so last names aren’t really an issue for us.  But for the Jonas-loving tweens of today, they are establishing first name-last name personal brands on Facebook at an early age.  10, 20 years from now when they tie the knot, how will they re-establish their brands on the internet?

Anyone have thoughts?