Will Taylor Swift take Travis Kelce’s name after their wedding?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jada Pinkett Smith became Jada Pinkett Smith when she married Will Smith in 1997.
- Jada Pinkett Smith warned that women can lose independence and identity by changing names.
- She said the name-change decision should reflect each woman’s personal code and.
As far as online jokes go, this one was a hit.
The parody X account Football Crave shared this nugget earlier this month: “Travis Kelce says he will be taking the Swift last name after their marriage this summer.”
While it was a joke, nearly 4 million people looked at that post and more than 500 people left a comment. Swifties loved the idea, and some believed the NFL would make a fortune selling jerseys.
Basically, many people liked the sound of it.
“Travis Swift actually sounds like a pop star waiting to drop a surprise album.”
“Folks gonna think it’s funny til he pulls up in training camp with a Swift-Kelce jersey on.”
The upcoming Swift-Kelce wedding raises the question of whether the superstar singer would change her name when she tells the Chiefs star “I do.”
It’s a decision many other famous female celebrities — from Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Aniston to Millie Bobby Brown and Kim Kardashian — have made.
The decision can be complicated for stars like Swift who built strong brands and public identities with their maiden names before Mr. Right — or Mr. Temporarily Right — came along. Ultimately, it’s a career decision.
And one that dates back nearly 300 years.
According to a story on the University of Cambridge website, a woman name Ann Fisher (1719-78) wrote books on education. She continued to publish as A. or Ann Fisher after her marriage to the printer Thomas Slack in 1742.
It is rare that a female star adopts her new husband’s last name for professional purposes, like Spice Girl Victoria Adams did.
Posh Spice became Victoria Beckham, legally and professionally, after she married soccer star David Beckham in 1999.
Model Hailey Baldwin legally took Justin Bieber’s surname after their Manhattan courthouse wedding in 2018. She told Bustle that she consulted her actor father, Stephen Baldwin, before the switch.
“I’m very proud of my family name,” she said at the time. “I come from a great family with a history in this industry.
“I remember when I was going to change it, I asked my dad if he was going to be upset and he was like, ‘No! I don’t care. We love you. All good, everyone still knows you’re a Baldwin.’ It’s true!”
She said becoming Hailey Bieber was “definitely strange, it takes adjusting.”
When TV personality Vanessa Minnillo married 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey in 2011, she also legally adopted Lachey as her professional name.
“We talked about it and he was so sweet,” she told “Access Hollywood” after she changed her name.
“He said, ‘Whatever you want, I understand.’ And I said, ‘But would it mean a lot to you if I took it? Because I’m old-fashioned and I want to.’
“And he said, ‘What guy wouldn’t want their girl to take their name fully?’ But he didn’t push me, no, no, no.”
More often, female celebrities keep their famous surnames even if, away from public attention, they’ve legally changed their last names.
Jennifer Aniston legally changed her name to Jennifer Pitt after she married Brad Pitt in 2000, but kept Aniston as her professional name, restoring her maiden name after they divorced.
Aniston, who shot to stardom on “Friends.” turned heads at a Department of Motor Vehicles office in Santa Monica, Calif., when she applied for a driver’s license under the name “Jennifer Pitt,” according to Inside.com via ABC News.
“Stranger Things” star Millie Bobby Brown also changed her last name after marrying Jake Bongiovi, son of singer Jon Bon Jovi, in May 2024. Legally, she is now Millie Bonnie Bongiovi; Bonnie is her middle name.
But she’s still Millie Bobby Brown to fans and on social media.
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” actress Sarah Michelle Gellar legally became Sarah Michelle Prinze five years after she married fellow actor Freddie Prinze Jr. in 2002. The name change was an anniversary gift to him.
But she still goes by Gellar professionally.
“It helps with what I do, specifically, because it does give you the feeling of being separate, of having had this other life — and you can go to work and have this stage name, and then go home and be someone else,” she told Bullett magazine.
“If people wouldn’t laugh at me, I would probably change my last name professionally, but people always give you a hard time when you change your name.
“It’s kind of late to change it now. And I’m used to being called by my initials anyway. People usually call me SMG or SMP. I call Freddie FPJ a lot, too.”
Speaking of initials, Jennifer Lopez has been married four times but has always remained JLo, even after legally becoming Jennifer Lopez Affleck after marrying actor Ben Affleck in 2022.
“J.Af doesn’t have quite the same ring to it,” she once said.
She reverted back to Jennifer Lynn Lopez after they divorced in 2024.
In 2012 when actress Jessica Biel married Justin Timberlake she legally adopted his surname but continued to use Biel professionally.
“Yes, I’m changing my name,” she told People after the wedding. “My professional name will still be the same, but for life, yes, I think it sounds great. I think I really won the jackpot of names.”
Miley Cyrus also kept her maiden name professionally after she married actor Liam Hemsworth in 2018, but legally she became Miley Hemsworth.
“She will still be, obviously, known as Miley Cyrus, but she took my name, which is great,” Liam said on “Live with Kelly and Ryan” after the wedding.
“I think that was honestly one of the best things about it. I didn’t ask her to take my name, and then she was like, ‘No, of course I’m taking your name.’ I’m like … that’s awesome!”
Taylor Swift-Kelce?
A few female stars have become hyphenates after marriage.
“The Big Bang Theory” star Kaley Cuoco changed her name to Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting after marrying tennis player Ryan Sweeting in 2013. She changed it back to Cuoco after they divorced three years later.
When “Friends” star Courtney Cox married fellow actor David Arquette in 1999 she changed her professional name to Courtney Cox-Arquette. In “The One After Vegas” episode, the first after their nuptials, producers added “Arquette” to each cast member’s name in the credits.
After the couple divorced in 2013 she went back to her maiden name.
Other celebrities simply added their husband’s last names to theirs.
So, Taylor Swift Kelce?
When “Quantico” actress Priyanka Chopra married Nick Jonas in December 2018 she legally added his last name to hers and now uses Chopra Jonas professionally.
“I always wanted to add his name to mine because I feel like we’re becoming family, and I’m a little traditional and old-school like that,” she said on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
“But I don’t take away my identity. He gets added to who I am.”
Kim Kardashian did the same thing when she married Kanye West in 2014, becoming Kim Kardashian West at work. She used the initials, KKW, for the name of a cosmetics line now discontinued.
Though the couple is no longer married their four children — North, Chicago, Saint and Psalm —- go by West. Their mom, though, legally dropped West and went back to her maiden name in 2022.
Having a child changed Salma Hayek’s mind about what name she uses professionally. She officially took her husband’s name when she married French billionaire businessman Francois-Henri Pinault in 2009, but did not use Salma Hayek Pinault professionally at first.
But she has told the story of when their 18-year-old daughter, Valentina Paloma, was younger and saw “Salma Hayek” on the back of a chair on a movie set. Confused, Valentina asked, “what about Pinault?”
“I said to myself, ‘This is who I am now. I’m starting a whole new life,’” the actress told InStyle.
“Why shouldn’t I share it with the people who have been supporting me my whole career, who have been with me since the beginning?’”
Actress Jada Pinkett became Jada Pinkett Smith when she married fellow actor Will Smith in 1997.
But publicly she expressed concern about women losing their independence and identities to husbands when they change their names.
“The dilemma you face whether to change our last name to your husband’s is a timely one,” Pinkett Smith once wrote on Facebook.
“I have always believed that an empowered woman is one that can stand on her own two feet and has the strength to trust her personal code of womanhood and not necessarily the code that a collective creates as the standard to which an independent woman must adhere to, to actually be identified as ... independent.
“Each woman carries a different code so that she may never be replicated and is assured her individuality and freedom.
“As long as your decision reflects your personal code towards building the woman you want to be in this world ... congrats ... job well done.”
.jpg)
