YouTube star condemned for insisting his girlfriend take his surname

YouTube star Ethan Payne has split opinion online after he said he wants his girlfriend to take his surname if they get married.

Payne and his co-star girlfriend, Faith Kelly, present the podcast “Growing Paynes”, after getting together since 2021 and having a child a year after.

In a recent episode, Kelly said: “Ethan won't propose to me because I want to be Kelly-Payne.”

Payne responded: “Faith doesn't want to take my name and that irks me.”

Kelly explained that she does not want to “lose my association with my family,” while Payne again responded that she would just be taking a name.

Payne is part of the YouTube group The Sidemen, which also includes social media star KSI.

He said he thinks Kelly taking his name is “how it should be done”.

“You're bottling it, that's what it is,” he joked.

But online commenters didn’t see it that way.

One person wrote on TikTok: “Naaah, that’s a big red flag. Thought more of him.”

Another said: “This is the brightest and biggest red flag I’ve ever seen like there should be no problem cus she’s taking his name as well so.”

A further commenter added: “It’s her name…. She’s including his name in it??? I don’t understand his point here.”

Some people said they understood where Payne was coming from.

One person said: “Sounds like she wants one foot out the door already. You’re either all in or all out.”

Another said: “Wants a traditional marriage with ut the tradition. You can’t make this sh*t up.”

Deed Poll data from 2021 shows that women combining both their husband’s and their own surname was up by nearly one-third compared to 2020.

Looks like, in wider society at least, the traditionalists are growing few and farther between.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.