I like my maiden name, even though it’s difficult for many people to pronounce. I will keep my maiden name all my life because I like it so much. I understand it when women take their husband’s name if they don’t have strong feelings about their maiden name, but I always appreciate it when some celebrity woman holds on to their maiden name in marriage. It’s not a matter of feminism, really. It’s just one of my quirks – I like it when celebrity women do that, almost as if they’re saying “I’m still me, even though I’m someone’s wife now.” (It also says something about how celebrities have an awareness of their own personal branding.) Well, Amy Schumer is one of those women now – she recently married Chris Fischer, and she’s absolutely not going to become Amy Fischer. Not least of all because she doesn’t want people to associate her with the Long Island Lolita.
Amy Schumer won’t be rushing off to the courts to get her name changed any time soon. The actress—who married chef Chris Fischer during a surprise ceremony in front of 80 guests at an outdoor ceremony in Malibu on Feb. 13.—posted an Instagram story on Sunday of her dad asking if she would be taking her new husband’s last name.
“Are you still Amy Schumer or are you Amy Fischer now?” says Schumer’s father, Gordon.
The I Feel Pretty star seems baffled by the idea, but not because she’s avoiding the long lines at the DMV.
“I’m not Amy Fischer! Do you remember who Amy Fischer is? The Long Island Lolita,” she says with a laugh. “No, I’m keeping my last name—I’m keeping your last name,” Schumer continues in the video of her father.
This story honestly made me a little bit weepy – I genuinely think Amy got married so quickly because her father’s health is declining and she wanted to have a memory of him at her wedding. And the “I’m keeping your last name” is making me tear up.
On a lighter note… I’ve always thought that Carrie Underwood didn’t take her husband’s name privately or publicly because she didn’t want to be called Carrie Fisher. The late, great Carrie Fisher probably had copyrights on her name though! Just as it would be an awful branding disaster if Amy Schumer suddenly became Amy Fischer.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Instagram.
Good for her as it just means good business branding! I changed my name and it was a pain in the butt but not as annoying as those who judged me for doing so. Do what you want/are comfortable with! I changed my name and I still believe in equality amongst the sexes! Plus one Amy Fisher is enough :-/
I think there a couple of reasons that celebrities keep their maiden names. Obviously branding and i also think because its hollywood and marriages crash and burn publicly so it might be embarrasing to suddenly go back.( i.e Chery Tweedy,Cheryl Cole,Cheryl Versini Fernandez).
Alternativley like Jennifer Aniston kept her maiden name publicly but i remember she said her driving licence had Pitt on it.
I kept my last name too! It’s who I’ve been my whole life and I just can’t imagine becoming a different name just because I got married. I get constant questions about it (as a relative newly-wed – 9 months!) because my last name is 15 letters long and hard to pronounce, haha! I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Friends of mine took each other’s surnames because they wanted to honour the marriage and their new status, but did not want the hassle of hyphens. 5 years later, they combined their surnames to come up with something completely ‘theirs’ so they would all have the same surname as their kids. Watching them go through the process, the only thing I would change is making our ‘combo name’ our name from the get-go and not go through the switch for only 5 years. But they thought they weren’t going to have kids when they did it initially. …… 🙂
My mom hyphenated our names as kids with her maiden name and people don’t pronounce it correct either but I love it too. If I were to get married I probably wouldn’t take my guys name because I wouldn’t want three last names and I’m very attached to my moms maiden name. Plus no offense to my beau but his last name and my first name completely changes the whole sound of my name in a way and just…doesn’t fit me. And We are not planning on having kids nor is the name really viable as a first name option even if we were gonna go that route. My dad would be so mad if I dropped his and kept my mom’s (I think) so I really can’t figure out what I’d do anyways. Luckily my guy is nonplussed about the whole thing and even encourages me to keep my name because ‘I’m my own person’
That’s funny!!!
I know, right? Too funny!
Amy Schumer grew up in Long Island too.
Long Island Lolita II
If I was famous I’d keep my maiden name as a stage name for recognition but would privately take another name for privacy reasons. Seems like you could better fly under the radar if you want to.
Different view here – grew up in Montreal and in the province of Quebec the laws changed in 1977 such that you keep your name if you marry. So for 41 years, it’s been that you can choose to change it, but the presumption is you keep your name. So growing up with cultural norm, I find it hard to understand women changing their names. Do what you feel comfortable with, yours, his or hyphenated but when you grow up in that landscape, the debate seems unusual.
You contradicted yourself here: “. It’s not a matter of feminism, really…. almost as if they’re saying “I’m still me, even though I’m someone’s wife now.”” It is a matter of feminism, for the exact reason you say.
That said, if someone wants to give up her last name, that’s her call, but it mildly annoys me when people claim it’s a feminist choice. It’s not. Not every woman has to make a feminist choice with everything she does, but not every choice women make are necessarily feminist either.
Agreed re: not every choice is feminist. I’m a feminist (because duh), but mostly I kept my name because I didn’t want to do the paperwork and I didn’t like how my husband’s last name sounded with mine. Maybe if I was crazy-besotted in love with a dude who had a nice last name I might have assumed it, but I still wouldn’t have done the paperwork lol
However, I do have kinda strong feelings about my kids taking my husband’s name when I do the pushing. Matriarchy for the win!
I actually quite like the Spanish system for that … the kids have two last names – each of the parents names becomes theirs. I think that’s cool.
I also always liked my last name. We only briefly discussed that if one of us was going to change our last names, it should be both of us changing it to something hyphenated or an interesting mash up of some sort — a quick look at all the paperwork deterred us from that and we decided to keep our names as is. Some of his and my relatives don’t get it, but it’s never really bothered me. I find it more amusing when I see Mr. and Mrs. So&so on an envelope or he gets called Mr. “IMUCU” instead of his last name. I always think our last names should be on something like a law office’s sign because they go well together, think “Justice and Order” are here to serve you. 😉
Yes branding is a big thing and its a huge hassle to change everything. Also, with the last name Fischer, my mind immediately went to Amy Fisher aka the “Long Island Lolita.”
Sweet story and good for her for keeping her name.
I’m not trying to be mean, but that second photo is like, O.M.G., she truly does look like a Cabbage Patch Doll!!!!!!
Carrie Fisher still had to pay George Lucas a few bucks every time she looked in the mirror, for as many images of her that Lucasfilm owns.