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But for some women who choose to change their names, the fight may have gone too far. "It was drummed into me [at college] that marriage was an inherently oppressive institution and that child rearing was an insult to my talents," says Carol Holyoke, 39, who shocked her feminist friends when she took her new husband's name four years ago. "So perhaps I feel a touch of rebelliousness in shirking a doctrine that ultimately seemed oppressive to me because it was slathered on so thick." The decision to become a Holyoke, she says, was empowering. "I was adopted at 18 months, so having my name changed was nothing new. When I got married, the change was my choice, and that felt really good." --With reporting by Logan Orlando