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Janet and Hope's surnames in the MCU are van Dyne yet Hank's is Pym. Janet is married to Hank and Hope is their daughter. It is usually the case that a wife will take their husband's surname upon marriage and the daughter will then take that name as well.

I've seen the theory that Janet didn't take Hank's surname when they married which is entirely possible but there's no direct/explicit mention of this that I can find.

The theory on Hope is also that either she has always been a van Dyne after her mother or she changed it from Pym after her mother's "death" and her father becoming distant in a way to honour her mother and distance herself from her father.

Hope van Dyne: You know when my mother died I didn’t see him for two weeks?

Scott Lang: He was in grief.

Hope van Dyne: Yeah, so was I, and I was seven. And he never came back, not in any way that counted. He just sent me off to boarding school.

Ant-Man

However, there is no direct/explicit evidence I can find which back either these up except informed speculation.

Why do they have different names?

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    "It is usually the case that a wife will take their husband's surname upon marriage and the daughter will then take that name as well." - Not always. agreed it's common but many women prefer to keep their maiden names....especially in the US.
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Jun 11, 2020 at 10:04
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    I'm in the UK and even here it's becoming more common for women to retain their original names. Many women are now "double barrelling" but van Dyne Pym is a little awkward. Plus, as a respected scientist in her own right (at least in the MCU) she would be expected to go by her own name in many cases.
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Jun 11, 2020 at 10:23
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    Also worth noting that one of the common trains women might keep their last name after marriage is if they already have a career/title under that name. Janet, being a practicing scientist, might not want to create confusion over papers she'd authored, etc.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Jun 11, 2020 at 12:59
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    On top of what Fuzzy Boots said about Janet. For ope, it may speak to Hank's absenteeism as a father. In the US when creating a birth certificate the mother and father both must sign off on the name if the surname does not match the mother's (although I believe this is a more recent law). So it is possible that Hank was not there when Hope was born therefore could not give his surname to Hope.
    – Skooba - Stands Against AI
    Commented Jun 11, 2020 at 13:40
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    1) Out here in a rural area of Canada (ie: not a cutting-edge trendsetting spot), I run my mind over all the married folks I know and nearly 50% of couples don't do that antiquated name change custom. 2) In "Ant Man", Hope is clearly angry and estranged with her father. Switching to her mother's name would be Job #1 as soon as it was legally allowed.
    – Blaze
    Commented Jul 12, 2020 at 16:43

1 Answer 1

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Janet van Dyne keeps her maiden name, as some women do.

In the MCU, Hope is estranged from her father after her mother's death and adopts her mother's maiden name.

In the comics, there is no Hope van Dyne, and the movie character is based on Janet van Dyne, Hope Pym, and Nadia van Dyne

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    Can you offer any evidence to back up these bold statements?
    – Valorum
    Commented Jan 19, 2022 at 15:32

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