It's odd that a 30-year-old sportswoman's decision to keep her maiden name should merit national interest. Nevertheless, Phillips has struck another blow in a battle Lucy Stone started

How exciting – Zara Phillips is a Lucy Stoner. The same as me and maybe quite a few of you too. Lucy Stone is no longer a household name, which is a shame given that it was her name that proved her legacy.

Born in 1818, Lucy Stone was the first American woman to keep her birth name after marriage. She'd been dead 28 years when the Lucy Stone League – one of the earliest feminist groups to emerge from the suffrage movement – was founded in 1921. Its motto is: "My name is the symbol of my identity and must not be lost."

It's odd, really, that 90 years later the fact that a 30-year-old sportswoman has decided to keep her name for professional reasons merits national interest. I know she's a princess and all, the Queen's granddaughter or whatever, but would it really be less eyebrow-raising if she suddenly started to compete as Zara Tindall?

Read some of the comments about the decision and it all seems of a piece with her "rebel" nature (she once had her tongue pierced!) and the egalitarian nature of her parents (her mother refused to add HRH to her children's titles at birth!). Traditionalists need not fear, however. In a largely positive article, the Mirror felt the need to declare: "When Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips MBE walks down the aisle after tying the knot in Edinburgh today she will be plain Mrs Mike Tindall – housewife, horsewoman and homebody."

Why is it still so unusual for women to keep their birth names after getting married? Identity is obviously a huge part of it, as is tradition. But that doesn't explain why it's still seen as an overtly feminist act. In Scotland, until the 20th century, married women kept their maiden names, but today the practice of changing to the husband's family name is the norm.

There is also evidence that the practice of switching from her father's to her husband's name at marriage has actually increased in recent years. A Harvard study by Claudia Goldin found approximately 87% of married, college-educated women took their husband's name – down from a peak before 1975 of over 90% but up from about 80% in 1990.

A university education makes women "two to four times (depending on age) more likely to retain their surname", according to the same study.

Anecdotal evidence (OK, talking to friends, family and colleagues) suggests that choice of career plays some part. When I decided to keep my name, I was 29 and had been a journalist for seven years. The founder of the Lucy Stone League was Ruth Hale, a New York City journalist and critic. Married to columnist Heywood Broun, she said the only one in her household called Mrs Heywood Broun was the cat.

A quick poll of my colleagues at the Guardian reveal similar decisions, in contrast to my college mates. A surprising number, to me, changed their names if they decided to marry. Most cited children; others liked the name better; a few didn't want to insult their beloveds. Quite a number, of course, have decided not to get married – but that's a whole other blogpost.

As for my sisters, neither of them to college, and neither kept the family name. Is there a survey that could prove this very anecdotal evidence true in the UK?

It gets messier when it comes to children. Most children of two-surname marriages are given their father's surname and I confess, through gritted teeth, that mine are the same. Martinson is their middle name and I tell myself that if it worked for Franklin Delano Roosevelt it can work for them, even if their surname is, er, Smith.

It is still rare for men to change their name to their wives'. I once knew someone called Smellie who did change his name after having children but to something entirely neutral, if not made up. Bizarrely, it's more legally challenging for men to change their names. They have to do it through deed poll and everything rather than just wave a piece of paper. The Lucy Stone League was set up for men and women in the cause of equality for all.

There is, however, a perfect example of a man who did change his name. Born into the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, he renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles, converted to Anglicanism and adopted the surname Mountbatten from his British maternal grandparent. Prince Philip, a role model for equal rights. Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write.

Did you change your name at marriage, and if so, why? Let us know.