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My Viking Name
- Colorado Review
- Center for Literary Publishing
- Volume 43, Number 3, Fall/Winter 2016
- pp. 71-87
- 10.1353/col.2016.0081
- Article
- Additional Information
This essay narrates the author’s experience, following her divorce, of legally changing her name back to her “maiden name.” It details the bureaucratic processes and critiques the use of the term “maiden name.” Since the author’s grandfather shares a name with a Viking named Ragnvald of Ervik, she argues for replacing the arbitrary term “maiden name” with “Viking name.”