Short answer. No. Article 372 provides that when legal separation has been granted, the wife shall continue using the name and surname she employed before the legal separation. Legal separation does not dissolve the marriage bond, so it neither requires nor authorizes her to revert to a different name.
What the law says
When legal separation has been granted, the wife shall continue using her name and surname employed before the legal separation.
Civil Code, Article 372 — Name After Legal Separation. Read the full provision →
The rule is that nothing changes
A common assumption is that a legal separation frees, or forces, a wife to drop her married name. Article 372 rejects that idea directly, providing that when legal separation has been granted, the wife shall continue using her name and surname employed before the legal separation. The decree does not disturb the name she was using; she carries on with it. So a wife who used her husband's surname before the separation continues to use it afterward, and one who kept her own name likewise continues as before. The separation changes the spouses' living arrangements and property relations, not her name.
Why legal separation does not change the name
The reason lies in what legal separation is. It permits the spouses to live apart and separates their property, but it does not sever the marriage bond; the parties remain husband and wife. Because the marriage still exists, the basis on which the wife used her married name still exists. A name change would suggest the marriage had ended, which is not what a legal separation accomplishes. Article 372 keeps the name aligned with the subsisting marital status, avoiding the false impression that the union has been dissolved.
How this differs from annulment or nullity
The position is different where a marriage is annulled or declared void. There, the marriage is treated as having been defective or as never validly existing, which can affect the use of a married surname in a way legal separation does not. Legal separation stands apart precisely because it leaves the marriage intact. Understanding this distinction helps explain why the law tells a legally separated wife to keep using the same name, while a person whose marriage is annulled or nullified faces a different situation regarding the married surname.
Practical takeaway
For a wife who has obtained a legal separation, the practical point is that she need do nothing about her name, and indeed the law directs her to continue using it as before. She is not required to change identification documents or revert to a maiden name on account of the separation, because her married status continues. If she is ever told that the separation obliges a name change, Article 372 is the answer: the name and surname used before the legal separation carry on unchanged.