French name customs

[krebscout]

I recently made a friend. She is French. She gave me her email address, "her first name.her last name @ gmail". Let's pretend it was jane.janeson@gmail. I became friends with her on facebook, and her name there is, say, Jane Smith Janeson.

Naturally, I addressed their family Christmas card to "The Janeson Family."

Later, I see on Facebook that her husband's name is Smitty Smith.

I'm not sure how to interpret this. It could be that she kept her maiden name just for fun and took her husband's last name for a middle name, kinda reverse from how it's commonly done here. Could be that this is a standard French practice, I have no idea. It could be that she kept her maiden name visible for professional reasons but her proper last name is, indeed, Smith. Any ideas? I'm a little embarrassed to ask her directly, seeing as I've already possibly goofed with the Christmas card. But it's not a big deal, so I will probably end up asking her if no one here knows what's going on.

[Dragon Lady]

I have a friend from France who got married and changed her last name from her married name to her maiden name… just like we do.

She also married an Australian. So maybe you're right about tradition, but he's got strong opinions?

(I think there is way too much fake-assumption about cultures going on in my post here.)

[Katya]

Could be that this is a standard French practice, I have no idea.

Not as far as I know. It never came up in any of my French classes (or in my cataloging classes).

Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject:

Contrary to popular belief, and also contrary to the practice of some other countries, French women do not legally change names when they marry. However, it is customary that they take their husband's name as a "usage name". This is not a legal obligation and not all women decide to do so. However, if they do, they may retain the use of this name, depending on circumstances, even after a divorce. In some cases, the wife, or even both spouses, choose to adopt a double-barreled surname made from joining the surnames of both partners. Thus, both partners' surnames coexist with whatever usage name they choose.

However, I have no idea how that would translate into FB conventions.