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Why don't more men do what Zoe Saldana's husband did?

Why don’t more men do this?

Actress Zoe Saldana, 36, married Italian artist Marco Perego in 2013.

Togther with their twin sons Cy and Bowie, they’re the Saldanas.

Mr Saldana decided to take his wife’s surname after they married, even when she warned him that society – especially in his native Italy – wouldn’t approve.

Loved up: The Saldanas. Image via Instagram.

“I told him, ‘If you use my name, you’re going to be emasculated by your community of artists, by your Latin community of men, by the world,'” Zoe Saldana told InStyle.

“But Marco looks up at me and says [she puts on a cute Italian accent], ‘Ah, Zoe, I don’t give a sheet.'”

That is so cool.

The idea that a woman should give up the name she was given when she was born upon marrying a man seems so old-fashioned, but most women still do it.

Zoe and Marco Saldana.

Even women who are avowed feminists and who have built careers based on their own names and identities do it.

Beyonce Knowles is now Beyonce Carter – she even had a whole tour called the Mrs Carter Tour.

Kim Kardashian is Kim Kardashian West.

Jessica Biel is Jessica Timberlake.

Singer Lily Allen is now Lily Rose Cooper.

Posh Spice Victoria Adams became Victoria Beckham when she married footballer David in 1999.

The Beckhams.

The argument for giving up this most essential marker of identity for your husband’s is often for family unity, so that all members have the same name.

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So how come it’s always women changing their names and not men?

It doesn’t seem as if the tide will turn anytime soon, despite Marco Saldana’s decision, but there have been other men who understood the value of a name, and chose to take on their wives’ names.

Marco Saldana hasn’t just got Zoe’s name, he’s got a tattoo of her face on his left arm.

John Lennon took on Yoko Ono’s surname in 1969.

“Yoko changed her name for me, I’ve changed mine for her. One for both, both for each other. She has a ring, I have a ring. It gives us nine ‘O’s between us, which is good luck. Ten would not be good luck,” he said.

And Jack and Meg White of the White Stripes were never siblings, but in fact married, and White was Meg’s name. Despite their split, Jack’s surname remains White (he was born Jack Gillis).

John Ono Lennon and Yoko Ono Lennon in 1981.

One solution is to mesh two names together. For example, a Mr Pugh and a Ms Griffin become, united, the Puffins.

As of 2012, the trend was taking off in the UK, with hundreds of British couples changing their names by deedpoll.

“Meshing has changed from once being a rare novelty to now being noted as being one of the main reasons couples may use a Deed Poll to change their names,” Claudia Duncan, an officer at the UK Deed Poll Service, told the UK Telegraph.

Genius.