Former “Bachelorette” star Becca Kufrin was inundated with well-wishes — and questions — after she introduced fans to her baby boy.
“Benson Lee Jacobs Kufrin cracked our hearts wide open on September 21, 2023,” Kufrin began a recent Instagram post.
Kufrin, who is engaged to fellow Bachelor Nation alum Thomas Jacobs, went on to share the story behind Benson’s name.
“Benson, Benny for short, is after the town where my father was born and raised,” Kufrin wrote on Instagram. “Lee is for Thomas’s father who sacrifices so much for this country and others. And Jacobs Kufrin is pretty self explanatory but we wanted both parts of us to make this little one whole.”
Despite the explanation, some of Kufrin's followers were still confused about the order of Benson’s double surnames.
“How come Kufrin is last?” one person asked in the comments.
Added another, “Adorable name but why not make Thomas’s name the official last name, he’s the dad and you all plan to marry at some point. Won’t Benny’s name be different yours??”
Even over the summer, when Kufrin referred to her unborn son as “baby Jacobs Kufrin,” several people inquired as to why it wasn’t “Kufrin Jacobs.”
Kufrin hasn’t clarified her personal reasoning for the name choice — but she also isn't doing anything new.
In Spain and several other Spanish-speaking countries, it's customary for women to keep their last name, and children often have two surnames: that of their father, followed by that of their mother. In the United States, however, heterosexual married couples often give the baby the father’s name — as much as 97% of the time, according to a 2002 report. Those numbers appear to be holding steady. A 2017 paper studying adoptive heterosexual parents found that 96% of the children received their father’s last name.
While other traditional attitudes on marriage may be changing in the U.S., naming conventions seem to remain strong. Nearly 80% of women adopt their husband's last name when they get married, according to a Pew Research survey from September 2023.
According to Sarah Epplen, a professor of sociology at Minnesota State University, there’s a “wrongful” assumption in the United States that a man is the head of the household.
“We have a strong belief in the nuclear so-called traditional family,” Epplen tells TODAY.com, “and part of American traditionalism is getting upset when people break from tradition, like this reality star did.”
And Kufrin is known for doing things her own way: She proposed to Thomas in May 2022. He said yes, and popped the question himself five months later.
Kufrin has not yet responded to any queries about the order of Benson’s last name, including from TODAY.com. She’s likely too busy staring at him!
"No amount of words can begin to capture the amount of love and awe we have over this tiny man. We are forever changed with this one’s abundance and can’t believe we are parents to this gift," Kufrin wrote on Sept. 25.
"Now we’re off to go cry again over how much we love him," she added.