for some reason it is universally accepted that even in the case of someone who has been brought up cared for and financed entirely by the mother the surname should still be that of the father among erstwhile matrilineal communities and regions in kerala there was a tradition of adding the mothers name as part of the initial which however is becoming less common even today the idea of having a womans name as surname makes people jump to the conclusion that the person is estranged from the father and invites ridicule as well especially in the case of menamidst all this there is a miniscule but strongminded group of people who have used their mothers names as their surnames even if its on social media even as an addition to the fathers name and no it is by no means a way of demeaning the role of their fathers in their lives but of acknowledging their mothers does it really make a differencethe question that the name changers have had to face most is what difference does it really make it does make a difference according to shafeek subaida hakeem social activist who is mostly known as shafeek subaidapeople dont think about this rather it is never a concern for them but by changing your name we are acknowledging the mothers influence in shaping their children he says the mothers name is always avoided in our society or at the most it is reduced to an initial the basis is nothing but patriarchy all through school and college only ones father is considered as the guardian at one point i realised that i have to protest against this male domination i respect and love my father but changed my namehis mother is not that educated but the kind of influence she has had in his life is phenomenal says shafeek i realised this only later in my life that she is my role model and guru on various subjects like religion relationships and secularism mine was an interreligious marriage but my wife is accepted as much as i am in my family i havent seen the kind of open mindedness my mother displayed in many of the progressive people of our age reasons are many but all are proud of their namesfor environmentalist and advocate hareesh vasudevan sreedevi it was a gender equality campaign on facebook which made him change his surname i am known by my full name now and i have no plans to change it i believe every person should be given an option to choose their own surname at the age of 18 if i had that option i would definitely have chosen my mothers namethe first name that comes to mind with a female surname would be that of triple jumper renjith maheshwari people even ask me if im from rajasthan where there is a caste called maheshwari but my surname was changed to my mothers name according to numerology my sisters and brothers