PASSINGS

Arax Kalajian, 64, co-owner of a computer consulting company whose lawsuit in the mid-1970s established a divorced woman’s right to revert to her birth name, died of complications from multiple sclerosis April 20 at her home in Annandale, Va.

Kalajian was divorced from George F. Egner in 1971 while living in Ewing Township, N.J. She wanted to use her original name for professional reasons but found she had to sue for the right.

The judge in her case blocked the name change because he feared the confusion of names would be harmful to her children and said that she should continue to use it “whether she likes it or not,” according to an Associated Press article, although her former husband had not objected to the change.

Arax Kalajian

Divorcee won name-change suit

A state appeals court panel determined in 1975 that the lower court judge erred and noted that a woman is permitted to use any name she wants as long as there is no criminal purpose in mind and the name is not obscene or offensive.

Kalajian moved to Washington, D.C., and began working for the Washington Board of Trade in the mid-1970s. While there, she began learning about computers and soon started her own consulting company, AKT Associates. She became a contractor for the State Department.

She took on a business partner and renamed the firm Coyne Kalajian. She sold it to Card Systems and retired in 1993.

Born in Teaneck, N.J., Arax Marion Kalajian graduated from what was then Trenton State College.