Amal Alamuddin Changes Name To Amal Clooney, Sparks Feminist Row

Amal Alamuddin is certainly a confident woman, as is evidenced not only by her senior role as a human right’s lawyer, but also in her everyday life where she exudes an air of confidence at all times.

So it wasn’t clear which way she’d go when it came to the old name change following her recent marriage to George Cloooney, which is a controversial issue, especially in the world of celebs.

While traditionalists would usually hold that it’s the right thing to do to take the man’s family name, more contemporary people, often including feminists, hold that one should keep their name or maybe double-barrel it.

The news that Amal was changing her family name to Clooney broke after her company, Doughty Street Chambers, updated her bio, clearly displaying her new married name of Amal Clooney.

There are of course those women who are not at all surprised that Amal took on Hollywood’s sexiest star’s name.

E. Jean Carroll, a relationship columnist for Elle magazine wrote, “Jesus, what woman would not take George Clooney’s name? I’ve been married several times. I’ve never taken a man’s name in my life, but I would never tell Amal what to do. I’m a radical, radical feminist, and it doesn’t bother me at all.”

But then, there are also opposing opinions, like Natalie Matthews who also writes for Elle, who admitted she felt “a twinge of disappointment” with Amal, because “women keeping their maiden names is not just a rare phenomenon but a decreasing one.”

Then there’s actress Jenny Gill, who also kept her maiden name when marrying New York 1 reporter Roger Clark.

“I already had my own name for years, and it just seemed silly to change it,” she said at the time.

On the other hand, Gill doesn’t blame Amal for taking George’s name, after all, in Gill’s words, “Amal has her own thriving practice, she is successful in her own right — but come on, who among us is as successful as George Clooney?. There’s cachet in that name.”