What precisely is Hillary's darn name?

[Jo]

Rodham, Rodham Clinton or just Clinton?

Apparently the Rodham is disappearing from her name again though her campaign denies any real issue concerning it.

Does her last name affect how you feel about her? Are you more comfortable with woman who takes her husband's name? Does that actually influence how you vote?

[Beka]

I couldn't care less what a candidate calls themselves when standing (although i may laugh inwardly if there name is particularly amusing or pompous LOL) and am more concerned with their policy. It does seem pointless that she is doing this though, i could understand 25 years ago people may have felt more comfortable with her having just her married name but no one really bothers these days.

[gr8mommy]

I think her name is whatever she thinks will help her get elected.

I can't stand her for any variety of reasons, her name is irrelevant to me.

[Lori]

I find that confusing, too.

I do know a lot of women who use their maiden name, married name, and both names together pretty interchangably, though. I never know what to call them. I hypenate my last name and I do in all circumstances. I don't care what anybody else chooses to do about their last name, but I do think consistency makes things a little easier.

ETA: Her name would have no affect on my voting. ;) If she's the Democratic candidate, I'll vote for her. I will NOT be voting for her in the Democratic primaries unless my opinion of her is drastically changed. Sean, on the other hand, is completely into her. I think he has a crush on her, actually. He has actually expressed an interest in naming any future female children we have "Hillary." I can't say I get the appeal. He's trying to convince me that she's the best candidate, but he's not swaying me from John Edwards yet.

[Jo]

Having kept my name, I am mildly offended that she gave in and changed her's in a clear effort to pander to voters. But that is one of the many things I can't stand about her and not nearly at the top of my list.

I don't care about last names. I just care that people are true to themselves and don't change to cater to opinions of other people.

[Marzipan]

Having kept my name, I am mildly offended that she gave in and changed her's in a clear effort to pander to voters. But that is one of the many things I can't stand about her and not nearly at the top of my list.

I don't care about last names. I just care that people are true to themselves and don't change to cater to opinions of other people.


Ditto to all of this.

[Kristi]

While it is confusing that she keeps changing it, I really don't care either way what last name she has. Though I find it kind of lame that she gave in to others and had it changed. Does anyone really care that much that they wouldn't vote for her because she kept her own last name?

[Marzipan]

You'd be surprised. My incredibly ignorant, hateful in-laws won't send us mail because I didn't change my last name when we married. I view this as a positive thing, but still.

[Lori]

You'd be surprised. My incredibly ignorant, hateful in-laws won't send us mail because I didn't change my last name when we married. I view this as a positive thing, but still.

What I wonder, though, is whether people who feel that strongly about the necessity of women taking their husband's name would vote for a female President anyway, and a Democratic one at that?

I can actually understand her name changes, I think. A couple having two different last names confuses people. If your husband is running for office, you don't want to confuse people about the nature of your relationship. So, having the same last name makes sense.

So, she goes from Hillary Rodham to Hillary Rodham Clinton. But, having two last names is even more confusing to people. I'm not kidding, probably 50% of the time when I give my last name to someone over the phone I have to do it at least twice, because the idea that ONE person can have TWO last names is just too much. It confuses my students. They pick one sometimes, or run them both together. Or just call me Mrs. Lori. People generally end up just dropping one of them, which drives me crazy, because they are BOTH my last name. My last name is two last names in one. Crazy, I know, but really not in the realm of rocket science, so I have no idea why people just do not get it. But it's frustrating enough that I sometimes wish I'd just stuck with my maiden name so at least it wouldn't take me five minutes to have somebody get my last name down correctly over the phone.

But Hillary is a less patient woman than I am ;), so she decides to go back to one name. The relationship-confusion issue comes up again, so she picks "Clinton."

I don't know. That's what I imagine her line of reasoning would be. ;)

[Maleah]

Does her last name affect how you feel about her? Yes! I would be more likely to vote for her if she had a cool last name like Trumble or Oglethrope or Obama or something. :D

Are you more comfortable with woman who takes her husband's name? I don't really care. I'd be more comfortable with a woman who was comfortable with 1.) her husband 2.) whatever name she orginally chose instead of bouncing back and forth based on opinion polls.

Does that actually influence how you vote? Not sure. I wasn't going to vote for her anyway.

[Marzipan]

What I wonder, though, is whether people who feel that strongly about the necessity of women taking their husband's name would vote for a female President anyway, and a Democratic one at that?

That's a dangerous gamble though. The US political system has so many disenfranchised voters that many of us are picking the lesser of two evils in any given election. If Hillary ends up winning the primary, no Democrat on earth is going to go Republican just because of her having her husband's name. I think the supposition, however, is that many Republicans are very pissed off at their own party right now and, if the Democratic candidate is appealing enough, might vote that way. As I am a member of neither party I always find such "strategery" to be quite fascinating.