“What’s in a Name?”: Navigating Your Scholarly Identity with a Name Change
10/4/2026 11:28 am
In academia, your name can become synonymous with your scientific “brand” and professional reputation. It appears on publications, conference proceedings, grant applications, awards, institutional profiles, and citation databases.
So why change your name? There can be many reasons: marriage, gender transition, cultural or religious reasons, or because a different name better reflects who you are. Whatever the reason, a name change can raise very practical questions about maintaining continuity in your scholarly record, and how or whether to change your professional name at all.
You may be reading this because you’re wondering if or how you should go about changing your name. First, let me reassure you that you’re not alone. Many scientists, including fellow IWB members, have had these questions.
Or you may be reading this because someone has reached out to you for support in going through a name change – this blog is for you too!
Addressing gender bias in research
A mentee recently asked me if it would be beneficial if they used their initials instead of their first name so that their gender was not revealed. This question alone is a reminder that gender inequities in academia are still very real. We know all too well the many famous women authors who used surnames or initials to conceal their identities.
But the burden of addressing those inequities should not fall on individual researchers who feel they need to hide part of their identity. Instead, I would encourage you to think about what YOU want your professional identity to be, rather than feeling that you need to hide your gender or part of yourself to be taken seriously.
If using initials makes you feel more comfortable or gives you greater control over how you are perceived, that is a perfectly valid choice, but I wouldn't want you to feel that it is something you have to do to succeed or to be taken seriously.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach
People navigate professional name changes in many different ways. Some keep their original name professionally while using a different name personally or legally. Others change their professional name, hyphenate, incorporate a former surname as a middle name, or publish under their previous name and use a new name for future work. None of these approaches is inherently better than another. Your name is personal, and your decision should reflect your preferences, circumstances, privacy, and professional goals.
When asked how to address a name change after marriage, IWB members shared a range of experiences, which we have included below.
For transgender and gender-diverse researchers
Name changes can also involve additional considerations around privacy, safety, and unwanted disclosure of a previous name. Seeing a deadname attached to publications, conference programs, or online profiles can be distressing or can inadvertently disclose information about someone’s gender history that they do not wish to share.
Some publishers have developed policies to address this. For example, Elsevier’s Inclusive Author Name Change Policy allows authors to request changes to names on previously published papers and describes options for updating publishing platforms and associated metadata while protecting privacy. Policies differ by publisher, so check the relevant journal or publisher when you want to update previously published work.
Maintaining your scholarly identity
A name change does not erase your contributions or scholarly record, but publications under more than one name can sometimes make it harder for people or databases to recognize that the work belongs to the same researcher.
A few tools can help. ORCID provides a persistent identifier that can connect your scholarly contributions over time. Google Scholar lets you curate your publication profile and associate publications under different names with your record. You may also need to update institutional profiles, professional society profiles, grant systems, publisher accounts, and databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, or PubMed.
If you are comfortable doing so, you can also make the connection between names explicit on your CV, for example, by noting that publications before a certain year appear under a previous name.
If you are concerned about how a name change could affect promotion, tenure, hiring, or award review, ask your institution’s faculty affairs office, department leadership, or mentors how they can help. You don’t have to solve this on your own.
A practical checklist
If you are considering or going through a name change, consider these steps:
- Create or update profiles like:
- ORCID iD: Ensure all your publications are associated with your ORCID. You can add and edit your name in your profile, making it easy to change your published name and include other names you are “known as”. You are also able to add works to your ORCID, so if one of your publications doesn’t show up under your profile right now, they can easily be added. Below are three links with more information on how to accomplish these:
- Google Scholar
- ResearchGate
- Review profiles in Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, or other databases relevant to your field.
- Scopus: The algorithm behind Scopus automatically matches articles to existing author profiles based on name, email, affiliation, subject area, citations, and co-authors. A profile is created automatically when two or more articles are linked to one name. You can request profile updates through their Author Feedback Wizard, which lets you set a preferred name, merge profiles, add and remove documents, and update your affiliation. If you change your name and publish with your new name, a new profile will be created in Scopus. In this instance, you would request to merge the two profiles.
- Web of Science. Web of Science automatically creates profiles based on published names; you can also sync your ORCID to this profile to easily pass information between both. Your name and affiliation can be changed by editing your Web of Science author profile. When you add publications to your profile, your published name will automatically populate with the one from the article. However, to change your published names from previously published articles, you will have to contact the publisher, not Web of Science. Here are some helpful links regarding adding publications and editing your profile.
- Update publisher accounts and submission systems.
- Update your institutional, lab, and professional society profiles.
- Let collaborators know what name you would like used on future publications.
- Update your CV and, if you are comfortable, clarify the connection between previous and current publication names.
- When submitting manuscripts, double-check the spelling and formatting of your name and include your ORCID iD when possible.
What can mentors and colleagues do?
If a student or colleague comes to you with questions about changing their name, you do not need to have all the answers. Start by listening. Ask what they would like to be called and what name they would like used professionally. Do not assume that a legal name, professional name, and publication name must be the same.
Most importantly, don’t make someone explain why their name is changing. Respect the individual’s privacy and follow their lead about what they want shared.
You can help identify practical next steps, such as updating ORCID and researcher profiles, contacting publishers, or talking with the institution about promotion and tenure considerations.
Building a community where everyone can be seen
Name changes are about more than administrative records. They touch on identity, visibility, privacy, recognition, and belonging. Our role as a community is not to tell people which choice to make, but to help ensure that whatever choice they make, they can continue to build and receive recognition for their scholarly contributions.
Your name may change but your scholarly contributions don’t disappear. And neither does your place in our community.
Hear from other IWB members on what decisions they made and how they made them:
**Note: countries after members' names indicate the country that they lived/worked/studied in when they got married**
I chose to hyphenate my last name both legally and professionally when I got married. At the time, I was in the fourth year of my PhD and had already published under my maiden name, Katugam. Keeping that name was important to me not only because I had begun building an academic identity under it, but because of what it represented personally. My father is the person who first inspired me to be driven by curiosity and ultimately to pursue a doctorate, so it felt important to me that the name I shared with him remained part of my academic identity.
At the same time, I wanted my new name to honor my marriage. I could not have earned my doctorate without the unwavering and constant support of my husband, and it felt right that the name on my PhD and on the work that followed reflected both the person who inspired me to pursue this path in the first place and the person who supported me throughout it. Hyphenating felt like a natural way to honor both.
Once my name changed legally, I immediately began using my hyphenated name in academic settings. Because the change was legal, my institutional profile and related information were updated automatically, while I manually updated accounts like LinkedIn and Google Scholar. I also made sure that publications under both names were connected to the same ORCID iD and that all of my publications appeared together on my Google Scholar profile.
One of the concerns researchers may have about changing their name is whether publications under different names will become disconnected or whether the change will affect citations or discoverability. In my experience, that hasn't been an issue at all. I have publications under both my maiden and hyphenated names and have never encountered a problem with citations or maintaining a cohesive publication record.
After more than four years of working in academia under my hyphenated name, I'm very happy with my decision. I quickly developed a strong personal connection to my hyphenated academic identity, and today it simply feels like my name. My advice to someone considering a name change would be not to feel that an existing publication record necessarily has to dictate such a personal decision. Tools like ORCID and Google Scholar make it possible to maintain continuity across names. There are several completely valid ways to navigate a name change in academia, but for me, choosing a name that reflected the people and relationships that helped shape who I am as a scientist was well worth it.
-Kavya Katugam-Dechene, USA
My husband and I were married about 20 days after completed my PhD. I knew I did not want to drop my maiden name because up until that point I had published work with my maiden name. Besides that, I was proud of my last name and thought that I should retain it since I was the one who earned the degree! I wanted my family name be reflected. My PhD advisor decided to hyphenate her name, but she went by her maiden name and almost everyone called her that. She told me looking back she didn't really think she had to change her name at all. I had heard that same sentiment from many other women I knew. Plus, it sounded awful to go through so much paperwork to change my name and graduate, move, start my new job, etc. So, all of those reasons informed not to change my name at all when I was married. I decided I would not care if people assumed that I had my husband's last name socially. Flash forward to today. I have been married for 3 years and have never had anyone really think twice about it. People address cards to the Kellers (my husband's last name), which is fine with me. Everyone at work knows me as Foley. Once or twice people I meet professionally will call my husband by my last name. Other than it being a little funny to him and I, no harm done. I recently had our daughter. We decided she would take my husband's last name-- this always made sense to me in my head-- so her and I have a different last name. I have never received any questions on this from a legal standpoint or for any medical appointments either. The one funny thing was getting gifts from my wonderful colleagues for "Baby Foley", which wasn't going to be her last name. But again, to me, that is harmless. I also had to clarify on the office update when she was born that it was "Kelly's daughter" because her announcement included my husband's last name. Overall, I have no regrets. I set the goals I had (publishing, earning my degrees, etc.) prior to meeting my husband and always envisioned "Kelly Foley" doing those things. Besides the administrative burden that was relieved, I still kept something that gave me my own identity and that I was proud of. The small mixups that happen are mostly due to harmless assumptions and do not impact my life. If you are okay with those, then don't worry about keeping your name. I imagine that the mixups that would come with tracking down work/professional contacts if I had changed my name might have created like a 3% increase in effort. So, changing your last name will also be okay.
-Anonymous, USA [names changed]
I decided to legally move my maiden name to my middle name to match my future family. Professionally, I chose to hyphenate my last name so I could continue incorporating my maiden name into my professional identity.
I purchased the Newlynamed box, which made the entire process extremely smooth and straightforward. Once I had my new license in hand, I contacted my employer to notify them of the name change and provided my preferred professional name so they could update my Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams accounts.
One piece of advice I would recommend is getting multiple certified copies of your marriage license. Having several copies makes the process much easier, as you will need to provide a physical copy when updating your passport, and scanned copies for employer records, bank accounts, and other accounts. Overall, the process was much easier than I anticipated, and having Newlynamed as a guide made it especially seamless.-Anonymous, USA
I have chosen to legally change my last name, make my maiden name a second middle name, and hyphenate my maiden and married names professionally.
For me, it was always a given that I would change my last name. I was raised with very traditional values, and I loved the idea of taking my husband’s name as we built a new family. However, by the time I got married, I had already published several articles under my maiden name, and I realized it was important to me to maintain that identity somehow. Hyphenating my name professionally gave me the opportunity to do so. Another benefit is that whether someone refers to me by my maiden or hyphenated name, I know that they would be able to find my work.
I also chose to add my maiden name as a second middle name so that it remains legally part of my name. I’m still not sure how important this is, but it gave me peace of mind that if something was tied to my maiden name, I’d be able to still prove that was me.
I requested a name change kit as one of our wedding registry items. I found this very helpful as it laid out every step of the process, reminded me of all the accounts I have that would need to be updated, and gave me a checklist so I knew what I had done. You can certainly do this without the kit, but for me it eased the burden. I started the process in October and had everything updated by January. My two pieces of advice would be: 1) Get multiple versions of your marriage certificates (I went through 4 total) as some places require it to be mailed to them, and then may or may not mail it back, and 2) wait until you have a lull in travel to change your name as it impacts all your airline tickets and travel documents.-Ashley Collimore-Doherty, USA
I never thought about it too hard, but always vaguely assumed I would change my name when I got married. However, by the time I actually did, I was 2 years into my PhD with several publications under my given name and only a few years out of an (admittedly not that serious!) athletic career where I'd been almost exclusively referred to by my last name. As I was considering the paperwork, I found myself somewhat anxious about changing this core piece of my identity, and was hesitating to go through with the change. I asked my husband if he cared if I did it, he said not at all, and I decided to just keep my maiden name legally, professionally, and personally. I have several "practical" reasons I could give that are all true to an extent - I'm American, but was studying in Canada at the time, so would have had to go through double the paperwork/risk not being able to travel home for a few months, I didn't want my publication record interrupted, my academic outputs under my maiden name were and are my "brand" - but ultimately I think all of these were overcome-able barriers if it had been important to me. So in the end, my decision was more personal than professional, even if there were some professional considerations involved. In watching others go through this decision since then, my general feeling is that changing your name does not seem to significantly hinder academic careers, but it can still present challenges, so keeping a maiden name professionally or hyphenating can help ease those few challenges. But ultimately, being comfortable with the name you choose to identify with has a lot of power, so whatever feels right to you will work itself out!
-Hannah Dimmick, USA/Canada
My surname is unique…globally, no one else has my name. In my previous career, before I went into academia, I became so recognizable because of my name, because no one else has it, that it was almost a no-brainer for me to keep it. But also…we’ve put in the work to become a doctor. We’ve put in the work to do the research. So when you’re going around professionally and you’re able to say you’ve got a PhD, and you can put the letters PhD after your name, you earned it, not them. Married-wise, I did change my name – for all my personal stuff, for legal purposes, for tax purposes, as a parent, my name is different. I feel like it’s good that I’ve got these two separate identities. I can keep my personal life as that identity, and then this is my work life/identity, clearly delineated, because everything is in separate names, so they just don’t collide.
But databases have improved a lot with ORCID, and publishers have gotten better as well. With my surname being Fong Yan, I had issues even before I got married, because they would decide “oh I’ll just take Fong and ignore the second part of your name that’s literally typed into the field.” Or the journal would be fine, but the database might decide “you know what? We’ll make your first name Fong, we’ll move Alycia to your middle name, and we’ll give you Yan as your surname.” It was like they were throwing three pieces of paper in the air and seeing where they’d land every time. I’ve seen every possible combination! But when ORCID came out, it made it so I was able to go through and say yes, this is mine, this is mine, this is mine, even with all the variants. Now it’s been able to draw a lot of these in and say “by the way, is this yours?” So it makes it much easier, and I feel like for those who do want to change their name, it’s not as much of a problem as before.
I feel like the main way changing your name could become an issue is, for example, attending a conference, where people have seen your name before because they keep citing you. And then when you’re at the conference, someone might see you and go “Oh, I know your name” and it makes a little bit more of an impact. You might see a name you recognize and you think “I’ll prioritize that talk over someone else’s, because I know that name, and I’ll actually get to hear them speak.” It’s not just a publishing track record, it’s your reputation as a whole, people knowing that this name equals this field of research.
-Alycia Fong Yan, Australia
Author
Ana Ebrahimi, PhD (she/her) (IWB Past-President and Awards Chair)
