# Couples Who Should Not Hyphenate Their Names **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 22, 2008, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671 "2008-02-22T02:43:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/21 "2008-02-23T00:51:11Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] A week or so ago I kept hearing promos for Bob Edwards’ show, in which a man was interviewed whose father edited a small-town newspaper in, I think, Wisconsin. The bite they played featured the intervewee saying that his dad’s paper covered small towns like Normal and Oblong, "… so he got to write headlines like ‘Oblong Woman Marries Normal Man.’ " I laughed out loud every time I heard it. 🙂 [/QUOTE] [Oblong](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=oblong,+IL&ie=UTF8&ll=39.003978,-87.909422&spn=0.030148,0.066347&z=14) and [Normal](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=normal,+IL&ie=UTF8&ll=40.512494,-88.990974&spn=0.117979,0.265388&z=12&iwloc=addr) are both cities in Illinois. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/22 "2008-02-23T01:02:27Z")
[QUOTE=freckafree] A little south of where I grew up is a town by the name of Big Ugly, leading to headlines like “Big Ugly woman injured in accident.” [/QUOTE] In Oregon, two towns in close proximity are Boring and Drain. I was told there was a story in the paper titled “Boring man drowns in Drain”. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/23 "2008-02-23T01:04:36Z")
A friend once forwarded me a real wedding announcement. The union of Mann and Whitney. Stats geeks will find this amusing. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/24 "2008-02-23T01:09:23Z")
[QUOTE=Barrels] I am getting married in August. We will not be hyphenating our last names, no one would ever be able to keep a straight face if we did. [/QUOTE] Gee, somehow I don’t find your anecdote quite as amusing as you. Because you have provided no details whatsoever. It’s like saying “I heard this joke once, it was really funny!” and expecting people to laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/25 "2008-02-23T02:36:12Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] Gee, somehow I don’t find your anecdote quite as amusing as you. Because you have provided no details whatsoever. It’s like saying “I heard this joke once, it was really funny!” and expecting people to laugh. [/QUOTE] With a name like **Barrels** , what’s the other name? Pickle? Herring? Beer? ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/26 "2008-02-23T02:50:07Z")
My wife was a Peters. I am a Payne. Hypenating would have created a urological symptom. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/27 "2008-02-23T02:55:07Z")
My husband and I (we kept our names when we married) joke about hyphenating. They are very similar but spelled differently. Imagine it’s something like Williams Walliums. Only, you know, not. ---
**Author:** ![theater\_in\_a\_crowded\_fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aca169/32.png) [@theater\_in\_a\_crowded\_fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theater_in_a_crowded_fire)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/28 "2008-02-23T15:55:31Z")
I am usually a full time lurker, but had to come out of the shadows on this one. I am absolutely not making this up. I know a woman with the last name Cox who married a guy named Pat Tucker and she hyphenates. Yep, she’s a Cox-Tucker. (say it together real fast). ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/29 "2008-02-23T21:12:29Z")
I have two friends whose wedding announcement was actually used on the Tonight Show. His last name was Saylors, hers was Hay… they were the Hay-Saylors wedding. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/30 "2008-02-23T21:45:33Z")
I know of a couple here in Vancouver: Beaver-Finger. Ouff. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/31 "2008-02-24T00:43:23Z")
[QUOTE=Ellen Cherry] A week or so ago I kept hearing promos for Bob Edwards’ show, in which a man was interviewed whose father edited a small-town newspaper in, I think, Wisconsin. The bite they played featured the intervewee saying that his dad’s paper covered small towns like Normal and Oblong, "… so he got to write headlines like ‘Oblong Woman Marries Normal Man.’ " I laughed out loud every time I heard it. 🙂 [/QUOTE] HM, maybe Iowa? my mom is from Diagonal and dated a guy from Normal, and there is an Octagonal [so I understand …] Then they moved to Grinell, and there isn’t any decent joke going on there=( ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/32 "2008-02-24T01:42:55Z")
Well, there’s the hostage negotiator, Amatalia Watt-Amaghanadu. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/33 "2008-02-24T03:34:27Z")
My mom told me of an aquaintance of hers by the last name of Hollopeter married a woman by the name of Longerbone. oO ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2008, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/34 "2008-02-24T06:25:40Z")
I dated a girl named Zimmerman. After we broke up, she was dating a guy named Orndorffer. All of her friends were hoping she would marry him so her last name would be Zimmerman-Orndorffer. Not real funny as a combo, but what a pain in the ass to spell for people. ---
**Author:** ![Barrels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@Barrels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrels)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/35 "2008-02-25T15:49:24Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] Gee, somehow I don’t find your anecdote quite as amusing as you. Because you have provided no details whatsoever. It’s like saying “I heard this joke once, it was really funny!” and expecting people to laugh. [/QUOTE] Kind of hard to provide a lot of details with out telling the entire world who I am. Both last names are not run of the mill. Ahh screw it, stalk me if you will… If I were to go by both last names I would be a Chestnut-Mess. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/36 "2008-02-25T15:59:12Z")
[These](http://kahlees.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/dingle_berry_west_virginia.jpg) guys shouldn’t hyphenate, should they marry. ---
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/37 "2008-02-25T16:33:11Z")
We have an athletic building on campus with a hyphenated name. I love hearing the football fans talk about the Butts-Mehre building. ---
**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/38 "2008-02-25T17:40:37Z")
I know a couple like this. Actually, I’m _related_ to a couple like this. Mr. Ball and Ms. Lust were married some 10 years or so ago. She actually uses the name “Lust-Ball” as her official last name, although she was kind enough not to inflict it on her kids. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/39 "2008-02-25T19:46:55Z")
I knew a Ms. Kirsch, who had thought about this topic enough to have mentioned that she wouldn’t want to marry a Mr. Platt. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671/40 "2008-02-26T04:15:38Z")
[QUOTE=lieu] [These](http://kahlees.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/dingle_berry_west_virginia.jpg) guys shouldn’t hyphenate, should they marry. [/QUOTE] I think you should suggest it to them. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couples-who-should-not-hyphenate-their-names/438671.md?page=3)