Hillary Clinton Drops ‘Rodham’ from Name

In her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, has become Hillary Clinton. Campaign press releases and the campaign website both contain the streamlined moniker, though Clinton continues to go by the name Hillary Rodham Clinton in her New York State press releases and in the U.S. Senate. A communications advisor to Clinton denies that there was any strategy behind the change.

However, Clinton’s name change aligns her with the 95% of married women who adopt their husband’s last name. Clinton is conforming to the social norm that families share a last name. While 25% of women continue to use their maiden name, only 1% of married women use their maiden name and husband’s last name together, according to Laurie Scheuble, a sociologist at Pennsylvania State University and author of “Trends in Women’s Marital Name Choice: 1966-1996.

This isn’t the first time Clinton has changed her name for political ambitions. Clinton retained her maiden name after her marriage to Bill Clinton in 1975. Her husband became governor of Arkansas in 1978 and lost his bid for re-election in 1980. Frank White, the Republican challenger, made it a point to inform voters that his wife went by the name “Mrs. Frank White” while he chastised Clinton’s professional independence. Citizens in this conservative state were, in part, uncomfortable with Clinton’s use of her maiden name and it was found after the election that her husband had lost up to 6 percentage points in the polls due to the name issue.

Strategically planning a political comeback, the couple regrouped. Clinton dropped her maiden name and became Hillary Clinton while her husband continued to campaign and serve as governor of Arkansas. She also used Hillary Clinton during his first run for the presidential office. Soon after her husband took office in 1993, Clinton adopted the name Hillary Rodham Clinton, when her own political ambitions began to emerge as she worked to develop a health care policy.

Clinton continued to use Rodham Clinton as her last name throughout her husband’s two terms of office and during her own campaigns for Senate in 2000 and 2006. New York is a more liberal state than Arkansas and the double moniker proved to serve her well in the state’s political climate. Though the country seems to be heading away from the ultra-conservative climate of the past eight years, a name change would ensure that the most conservative of states will not discount Clinton solely because of her name.

Source: Albany Times Union; Eliminating the ‘Hillary Clinton’ Divide; Stewart M. Powell; April 30, 2007