Short answer
Many Hanafi muftis allow it as a custom of identification, since it does not claim that the husband is her father, but they say keeping her father's name is better. Other scholars forbid it, based on the hadith against attributing oneself to anyone but one's father. Changing your lineage, as if he were your father, is haram by agreement.
Attributing oneself to someone other than one's father as lineage is haram. Taking a husband's family name as a surname, where everyone understands it shows marriage and not descent, is permitted by many Hanafi muftis, though keeping the father's name is preferred.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
Allah says, "Call them by the names of their fathers" (33:5), and the Prophet ﷺ warned that whoever knowingly claims someone other than his father as his father, Paradise is forbidden to him. These texts are about lineage (nasab): pretending to be someone's child. The classical schools did not discuss married surnames, because they were not a Muslim custom, so this is a modern question.
The two views.
- Permitted: many contemporary muftis, including Hanafi ones, say that in Western usage a married surname labels the household, not a claim to be the husband's daughter, so the hadith does not apply. They still prefer keeping or adding the father's name, for example Fatimah Ahmed Khan.
- Not permitted: other scholars, such as the Saudi Permanent Committee, forbid it as a form of false attribution and an imitation of non-Muslim custom.
Muslim women in history kept their fathers' names: Aisha bint Abi Bakr, Fatimah bint Muhammad. Their children took the father's name. If you take your husband's surname, keep your father's name on official documents where you can, so your lineage stays clear for inheritance and records.
A mother's last name. A child's lineage is through the father, so a known father's name should not be dropped. Related rules are in an adopted child's last name and changing your name as a convert.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Ahzaab 33:5
ٱدْعُوهُمْ لِءَابَآئِهِمْ هُوَ أَقْسَطُ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ۚ فَإِن لَّمْ تَعْلَمُوٓا۟ ءَابَآءَهُمْ فَإِخْوَٰنُكُمْ فِى ٱلدِّينِ وَمَوَٰلِيكُمْ ۚ وَلَيْسَ عَلَيْكُمْ جُنَاحٌۭ فِيمَآ أَخْطَأْتُم بِهِۦ وَلَٰكِن مَّا تَعَمَّدَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ غَفُورًۭا رَّحِيمًا ﴿٥﴾
Call them by [the names of] their fathers; it is more just in the sight of Allah. But if you do not know their fathers - then they are [still] your brothers in religion and those entrusted to you. And there is no blame upon you for that in which you have erred but [only for] what your hearts intended. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.
Lineage must be kept to the true father.
Sahih al-Bukhari 6766
Sahih... من ادعى إلى غير أبيه وهو يعلم فالجنة عليه حرام ...
"Whoever claims to belong to someone other than his father, knowing it, Paradise is forbidden to him."
The warning concerns false claims of lineage.
Where the ruling is recorded
- al-Hidaya, Kitab al-Da'wa, Bab Da'wa al-Nasab. Lineage is established through the father and cannot be transferred by choice.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.