- Monica Patterson changed her last name when she got married in February.
- The TikTok star said she faced criticism from followers who thought she was being coerced.
- “I’m not being forced, I’m not being dominated… I’m so happy,” Monica told Insider.
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Like many brides, Monica Patterson changed her last name to her husband’s when she got married.
Monica, previously known as Monica Gartner, married Sam Patterson in February after being in a long-distance relationship for six years.
Hailing from Cheshire in the UK, Sam moved to the US earlier this year to be with her. The couple married at an intimate outdoor ceremony on Long Island attended by 10 guests and their priest’s dog walking group.
They documented the wedding on their joint TikTok account, which has more than 2 million followers, and their YouTube channel, which has 657,000 followers at the time of writing. After the ceremony, they released a vlog on their YouTube channel titled “Changing Her Last Name,” in which Monica shows the process of requesting to legally change her last name to Sam’s.
The couple old insiders that the video drew criticism from their followers, who accused Sam of being energetic and domineering.
“We were so excited for this video,” Monica told Insider. “A lot of the comments were great, but there were also a lot of people saying things like, ‘How dare he make you change your name?’ They thought he was forcing me.”
“People kept saying I would make them do it,” Sam told Insider. “And she’s just like, ‘No, I just want the same last name as his grandma.'”
“I love my family, but I think you change your name when you get married. I’m sure if I wanted to keep my last name we would have had that discussion,” Monica added. “I’m not being forced, I’m not being dominated… I’m so happy.”
Monica’s maiden name, Gartner, is present on some of her social media profiles. Her Instagram name has stuck @monicagartner, and her name is on her Instagram profile as Monica (Gartner) Patterson. Her individual YouTube channel is titled Monica Gartner with 144,000 subscribers while her individual TikTok channel is titled Monica Patterson with over 500,000 followers.
According to a series of Google polls conducted by the New York Times, more than 70% of married women in the US chose to take their husband’s surname in 2015. And according to a 2016 survey published by the British Sociological Association and quoted by iNews, almost 90% of married women in the UK took their husband’s surname.
As Brides reports, in recent years it has become common for couples to consider other options, including men taking their wives’ surnames or creating a new surname.