Hillary Rodham Clinton for Senate/ Hillary Clinton for President

Hillary Rodham Clinton ran for and won two Senate races in New York, I will give her credit for that effort-slight though it may be. However, Hillary Rodham Clinton is not running for President, Hillary Clinton is. News reports are now noting that the Democratic front-runner has dropped her maiden name in her bid for the White House.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has dropped the use of her maiden name "Rodham" in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton identifies herself as "Hillary Clinton" in her campaign press releases and on her campaign website. The lone mention of her maiden name is in a campaign biography that says "Hillary's father, Hugh Rodham, was the son of a factory worker from Scranton."

She continues to use "Hillary Rodham Clinton" in her New York-focused press releases and in the Senate.

Clinton appeared surprised last week when asked why her presidential campaign had dropped her maiden name. Clinton laughed, shook her head and replied: "I haven't, I haven't," before dashing off.

Howard Wolfson, a top communications adviser to Clinton, downplayed any significance to the change. Asked if it was a strategic decision to drop "Rodham," Wolfson replied: "That's a fair question, but there's no plan behind it."

The second-term senator and former first lady has emphasised various names in Arkansas and Washington, DC, over the past 25 years.

Laurie Scheuble, a sociologist at Pennsylvania State University who has studied the choice of last names by married women, says Clinton's decision to drop her maiden name puts her in sync with the vast majority of married women in America.

"To most people, family means everyone having the same last name," says Scheuble, author of "Trends in Women's Marital Name Choice: 1966-1996" and "Attitudes Toward Nontraditional Marital Name Choices." "She's doing the right thing politically to appeal to the most voters. She's conforming to the social norm."

Married working women often face a dilemma over whether to retain their maiden name alone, use both their maiden name and their husband's last name or use their husband's last name alone.

While I appreciate the need for professional reasons, when Hillary Clinton was Mrs. Clinton, the wife of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, I heard nary a mention of her maiden name. While First Lady, it seemed to appear and then her maiden name was prominent in her bid for the Senate, now Rodham seems to be disappearing.

With all the name changes, it seems to me that there is more of a political motive than a desire to be concise or frugal with print.