I’ve noticed a trend towards more couples or their children taking on a hyphenated last name after marriage or birth. If these children were to marry another person with a hyphenated last name and wished to carry on the family tradition, would the resulting last name be a quadra-hypehated name? For example if John Doe-Day married Sandra Wilson-Smith would/could their children be named Doe-Day-Wilson Smith? Is this likely to happen or am I being rediculous?
People can choose whatever “married” name they want. I personally would avoid a multiple-hyphen strictly because of the “dumb people messing it up” factor, as well as knowing that my name needs to fit into computer slots!
(fyi, it’s ridiculous, not rediculous)
My brother and sister-in-law picked an entirely new name for many reasons. You don’t have to hyphenate, not hyphenate, or choose one or the other.
My SO’s name and my name differ by only a few letters and sound very similar if said quickly, so we’re not hyphenating. It would be like “FilmGeek Willams-Williamson”.
If Boutros Boutros-Ghali had a son named after him, his name would apparently be Boutros Boutros-Boutros-Ghali.
But what if the former Boutros had a daughter with Roseann Roseanna Danna?
There is this thing called “negotiation”…
When I married I hyphenated, but the husband and I discussed the issue of children’s names and agreed that if we ever had children they would have his surname, unhyphenated.
Other couples dealing with hyphens may come to their own decisions.
Some cultures use hyphens/multiple names after marriage… but in those cases there are already established rules for dealing with this questions. Which vary from culture to culture.
So there’s no one definitive answer
If my parents had carried on tradition, I would have a quadruple-barrelled name. Thankfully my Grandfather thought his triple-barrelled name was pretentious, so he dropped everything but “Smith”, and my parents went with my father’s surname.
In Hawaii, after you marry, you must declare a middle and last name. John Anthony Smith and Mary Cleopatra Jones must keep John and Mary respectively but the rest *may * change with no restriction. This is codified in the marriage statute.
Samples:
John Anthony Smith and Mary Cleopatra Jones [no change]
John Anthony Smith and Mary Cleopatra Smith [traditional]
John Anthony Smith Jones and Mary Cleopatra Smith Jones [non traditonal combination]
John Anthony Smith-Jones and Mary Cleopatra Smith-Jones
John Anthony Jones Smith and Mary Cleopatra Jones Smith
John Anthony Jones-Smith and Mary Cleopatra Jones-Smith
John Anthony Smith and Mary Cleopatra Smith Jones
John Anthony Smith and Mary Cleopatra Smith-Jones
John Anthony Jones and Mary Cleopatra Jones Smith
John Anthony Jones and Mary Cleopatra Jones-Smith
John Terry Weatherby and Mary Ruth Thompson [unconventional]
John Mary and Mary John
etc.
These are changes allowed under the marriage statute. So any consequent changes after this declaration must be done through family court, etc.
Similarly, your children can be named anything.
It could be little Dweezil Roseanna Danna Boutros-Ghali. And if she grew up and married John Doe-Day-Wilson Smith II, their son could be John Roseanna Danna Boutros-Ghali Doe-Day-Wilson Smith III.
From what I understand in the Peurto Rican naming system you actually drop the mother’s name out of the hyphen. If a Smith (male) marries a Jones (female) the famle will now be Jones-Smith, as well as their children. If a female child then marries a Brown her new name would be Smith-Brown. I’m not sure what happens when a Jones-Smith marries a Smith-Brown though.
If I were going to do a hyphenated name change, a good idea would be to have one name be matrilineal, and one patrilineal. That way, both men and women would be able to carry on the family name.
Yeah, this is the way I’d prefer. Jonathan Periwinkle-Twitterpate marries Virginia Terwilliger-Pulaski. Their children have the hyphenated name Terwilliger-Twitterpate, and thus the first name is passed down generation to generation matrilinearly, while the second name is passed patrilinearly.
I’ve always wondered, though, if (given that lines die from time to time) all names except maybe the commonest would end up being “female” or “male” eventually. Would “Twitterpate”, over time, become strictly a “male” last name, and not passed down any female lines?
And of course, we all know from a classic thread from a few years ago that:
If Tuesday Weld married Frederick March II, her name would be Tuesday March the Second.
<fake concerened voice>
Oh the slippery slope is at work, first we have inter racial marriage, then we allow homosexual marriage, and now someone wants to marry a punctuation mark.
Please, pelase, think of the children!!!
Check out this information on Admiral Sir Reginald Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax , son of 17th Baron Dunsany and Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor. How he got Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax out of Dunsany and Grosvenor, I do not know.
The father’s surname was Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.
“17th Baron {of} Dunsany” was the title, not the name.