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Eliza Anderson, Deseret News
When Ashley Hatch married Jeff Van Buren in January 2019, she had just wrapped up her second season in the National Women’s Soccer League.
The former BYU soccer player was showing promise in the NWSL. She’d been named Rookie of the Year in 2017 after scoring seven goals for the North Carolina Courage, but she was still establishing herself on the Washington Spirit after being traded to the team in 2018.
In part because she felt like her star was rising, she was split on whether she should keep the last name Hatch or change to Van Buren. So in what she recalls as a casual conversation, she asked her soon-to-be husband what he thought.
“He was like, ‘You’ve had a very successful career already, but you’re still kind of at the beginning of your career,’ and he was just like, ‘I think it’s part of your soccer brand, and I think you should keep it,’” Hatch said.
After that conversation, she chose to remain “Ashley Hatch” both legally and professionally. It was a decision that every married woman ultimately has to make, although few have to consider a burgeoning soccer career.
In the United States, nearly 8-in-10 women in heterosexual relationships take their husband’s name after marriage, according to a 2023 survey from Pew Research Center. In other words, it remains the most common choice by far, even as other marital norms have changed and given women more power.
But for female professional athletes, choosing to change names doesn’t exactly feel like following the crowd.
It often feels like a risk, and it can spark controversy, as evidenced by the social media reaction earlier this year to U.S. women’s national soccer team stars Lindsey Horan, Lynn Williams and Sophia Smith, who each recently took their husbands’ last name, becoming Lindsey Heaps, Lynn Biyendolo and Sophia Wilson.
During February’s SheBelieves Cup — the first matches for Heaps and Biyendolo with their new names (Wilson is on maternity leave) — confused fans took to social media to comment on the changes.
Some expressed their displeasure with the players’ decisions, while others came to the players’ defense.
The debate showed that, when choosing between keeping their own name, taking their partner’s name or creating a hyphenated last name, female athletes must take some unique factors under advisement.
The data behind the name change debate
Despite what the reaction to Heaps’, Biyendolo’s and Smith’s new names might imply, it’s very common in the U.S. for married women to change their names.
Pew’s 2023 survey showed that 79% of women took their husband’s last name after marriage, 14% kept their name and 5% hyphenated their maiden name and their husband’s name.
The survey showed that women ages 18 to 49 were more likely to keep their last name than women 50 and over, with 20% electing to not make the change.
While Pew didn’t examine the reasoning behind the choices married women made, The Female Quotient, The Knot.com and SmithGeiger Group explored that in their own 2024 survey.
As Hatch’s story illustrates, keeping her last name can help a married woman preserve the professional brand and identity she built before marriage. Around one-third of unmarried women told The Female Quotient that they will only change their personal name, not their professional name, after marriage in hopes of retaining credit for past achievements.
Why hyphenate? The Female Quotient found that 63% of women said that the biggest factor in hyphenating their last name was the preservation of their family name.
The sports world is full of married women athletes representative of each name category.
Former USWNT players such as Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy all chose to keep their own surname after marriage.
Lloyd only took her husband’s name professionally in her final game. Walking off the field, she took off her Lloyd jersey to reveal another one with “Hollins” — her husband’s last name — on the back.
Before Heaps, Biyendolo and Wilson, Mallory Pugh became Mallory Swanson in 2023. Julie Ertz and Lauren Holiday also changed their names in the past.
WNBA stars Sabrina Ionescu and Kelsey Plum kept their maiden names — Plum has since divorced — after marriage.
Track and field Olympians Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Tara Davis-Woodhall and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are examples of women who chose a hyphenated option.
Why female athletes change their names
Utah Royals midfielder Mikayla Cluff understands why fans may be frustrated if a player decides to take their husband’s name because they have that player’s jersey or want the player to maintain the brand they built.
But she said frustrated fans should consider the positive reasons why an athlete would choose to make a change.
“As a fan, you should want to support what the athlete wants to do and support their choice to change their last name and support their marriage if that’s what they want to do,” Cluff said.
When Cluff (formerly Colohan) left BYU for the NWSL after the 2021 season, she had more than established a legacy for herself in Provo, leaving as the program’s second-leading scorer.
Her collegiate career was the only reason Cluff considered continuing to go by her maiden name after marrying her husband, Jackson Cluff, a professional baseball player. Everyone in the soccer world knew her as Mikayla Colohan. She wondered if people would follow the name change.
But she had always planned to take her husband’s name. The thought excited her.
Cluff saw that choice as the norm and as representative of her commitment to Jackson and their marriage.
The fact that her first season as Mikayla Cluff was also her first professional season had advantages and disadvantages.
The timing for the change fit, but “people really had to follow, like, ‘OK, where did Mikayla Colohan go?’ and then try to connect the dots that now she’s Mikayla Cluff in Orlando playing in the NWSL,” she said.
For the most part, the NWSL and its fans know her as Cluff, but there is the occasional moment where the midfielder — now in her second season with the Utah Royals — has to remind someone.
“Sometimes even still, after it being a few years, I’ll have to remind people like, ‘Well, my name formerly was Colohan, like that’s me,’” she said.
Her advice to women considering a name change would be “to do what feels comfortable to them” and avoid “letting outside pressures dictate” their decision.
“You remain the same individual that you are, and you’ll still accomplish and have the same things done, whether you have your last name or your new last name on the back of your jersey,” she said.
Michele Vasconcelos (formerly Murphy), a fellow former BYU Cougar who plays for Spain’s FC Levante Badalona, said she’d give similar advice.
“I think it just has to obviously be your decision, and as long as you feel good about it, then I think that’s what’s best,” she said.
Vasconcelos celebrated her 10-year wedding anniversary with her husband, Pedro, in April. While she chose to take her husband’s last name, she doesn’t “think you have to have changed your name in order to have that unity within your marriage.”
Vasconcelos’ maiden name was very special to her, she said. On the soccer field, she had always been called “Murph” — a nickname people still use today.
“At first, as I thought about it, I was like, ‘Oh, I’m kind of sad to leave my maiden name behind.’ But at the same time, I looked at it as us two joining together and starting a new life, and for me, it was a good way to show kind of that unity,” she said. “I was excited about it, and I’ll always be Murph on the field. But it was fun to become Michele Vasconcelos and be able to start that new chapter together.”
Vasconcelos thinks there used to be pressure for players to keep their names, but the recent name changes, especially from Heaps, Biyendolo and Wilson, are evidence that such pressure is starting to go away.
“You see girls changing their names a lot more, especially on the national team. Whereas in previous years, that was not a thing. Like, players just did not change their names,” she said.
Because she was still in school when she got married, taking her husband’s last name wasn’t even a question for Vasconcelos.
But she recognizes that the decision can become harder once a player has established a name for themselves, and she admits she too has a hard time keeping up with players’ name changes.
“It’s really tough once you’re in the sports world and you develop that personal brand to change your last name,” she said.
Why female athletes keep their last name
For Hatch, playing under her maiden name was about more than preserving the personal brand she’d built for herself as a professional athlete. It would also allow her “to continue to carry on the legacy of my family,” she said.
She appreciates that her husband was supportive of her not being ready to change that part of herself and her brand.
“My dad has played a huge part in my career, and so, I think continuing to wear Hatch on the back of my jersey is also still really important for me and my family,” she said. “But I think if Jeff would have wanted me to change it, I would have changed it in a heartbeat.”
While Hatch may not wear Van Buren’s last name on her back, she finds other ways to honor him and their marriage on the field.
A close look at Hatch’s hands during a game will reveal tape wrapped around her ring finger. On the inside of the tape ring, you’ll find the letters, “VB,” written.
It’s a tribute Hatch has been doing since she and Van Buren married six years ago.
“It’s just a way for me to kind of acknowledge Jeff and to also have him kind of with me on the field. Since I haven’t changed my name on the back of my jersey, I just feel like it’s a subtle but kind of intimate way for me to just think of him and kind of have, like I said, have him kind of be a part of this process because he’s obviously played such a huge role in my career for a long time now,” she said.
The only place Hatch goes by “Ashley Van Buren” is at church.
“At church, I kind of feel like Hannah Montana, where she has a double life,” she said. “When we’re at church, we’re the Van Burens, which is kind of fun.”
Van Buren has his own double life. When cheering on his wife at Audi Field, he often goes by “Mr. Hatch.”
Just because a woman or athlete initially decides to not change her name, doesn’t mean the decision is final.
Hatch and Van Buren still have casual conversations about changing her last name. They’ve talked about hyphenating, but Hatch thinks “Hatch-Van Buren” is “way too much.”
She said a full change to “Van Buren” is still under consideration for her both legally and professionally.
“Eventually, professionally, I think I would change it, or at some point in my career, (I) would love to wear Jeff’s last name on the back of my jersey as well,” she said.
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