>>Today I visited the website of Christof Lange, oh sorry, I mean Christof Wollenhaupt. Until today I thought it were two different persons, but it appears that he married two years ago and has changed his last name.
>>
>>What puzzles me is that no one here has wondered how this is possible. As far as I'm aware of, there's no law that allows a man to change his last name when he gets married.
>>
>>Christof, are you reading along?
>
>I'm not sure about US (I know a woman can keep her own last name, can add a second last name or can change her last name after being married), but in Russia you can change your last name to your wife's name. It rarely happens, though.
I think it was always possible in socialist countries. I actually know one, maybe two, who did that.
When we were getting married, the matricular office clerk told us of the possibilities - we could keep our last names, we could both take one of the names (didn't say which one - it was up to us), or one or both of us could add the last name of the other. My wife went for the latter, and so became the test case for databases. If her name and both longish last names fit, the table is well designed.