There's always been a steady cultural flow from the US to the UK, whether it's been political (monetarism, market economics), gastronomic (fast food), televisual (soaps, movies) or whatever. One of the US trends which hasn't really made it to the UK yet is the practice of women concatenating their maiden name and their husband's family name (Hillary Rodham Clinton being one such example). An illustrative UK example might be Cherie Blair - whose Wikipedia entry describes as being 'known professionally as Cherie Booth'. She has retained her maiden name in the professional role she established before marrying.
I see from today's edition of USA Today (3A - "Name controversy halts ballot printing") that the name of Mardi Anne Levey - a would-be election candidate in Broward County, Florida, is at the heart of a procedural wrangle over the distribution of ballot papers. Apparently, not wanting to run for election "on the coattails" of her husband Dale Cohen (a Broward Circuit Judge), Levey wanted to use her maiden name on the ballot papers. Another judge, however, ruled that this violated election law.
In the UK, as far as I know, you can stand for election using any name you want (as long as the use of that name is not fraudulent or done to escape prosecution; there's probably an obscenity clause as well...). It's a practice much used by Screaming Lord Sutch and the Official Monster Raving Loony Party which he founded in the 60s. For instance, here's the archive of some of the characters who have stood for election on the OMRLP ticket, including Bananaman, Mad Cow-Girl and Mr R.U.Seerius.
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