One of the players you may have noticed is London Fletcher-Baker. He went by London Fletcher until a few years ago, at which time he added “Baker,” his grandmother’s name, as a tribute to her. Announcers seem to ignore the “Baker” part, which always strikes me as rude. Maybe it’s just force of habit.
I am called just “Mr. Motorcade” all the time. It is a little annoying, but I recognize that folks just don’t get hyphenated names and unless I will see/speak with them again I usually don’t bother to correct them.
What I REALLY don’t like is being called “Mr. Firstname”, which makes me sound like a monkey in a hat who plays the accordion. With me it is ALWAYS either Mr. Lastname or simply Firstname.
The current mayor of L.A. did something similar. His name was Anthony Villar, and when he married his (soon-to-be-ex) wife, whose last name was Raigosa, they smooshed their names together so he’s known as Anthony Villaraigosa.
Trivia: Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith is the first player in Major League Baseball history with a hyphenated last name. (He’s white and Australian, if it matters.)
When I got married, I added my husband’s last name to the end of my, but with no hyphen, juts a space (so two last names, essentially). It’s been very interesting to see who stumbles over this and who takes it in stride - the most vexing by far is my mother, who continually forgets to include my maiden name, and will write out checks, etc. to Mrs. Husbandsname. My credit card company just smooshed the two together, which kinda cracks me up because the resulting name is almost 20 characters long. Other than that, I have had very few problems. I have had to lay down the law with a couple of people addressing stuff to Mr. and Mrs. Husband’s Full Name. There is no Mrs. Husband, people. I have a name of my very own!
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s four daughters all have “Kennedy Townsend” as their last name. No hyphen for any of them. Her husband just goes by Mr. Townsend.
But as far as male athletes go, Maurice Jones-Drew, RB for the Jacksonville Jaguars was just Maurice Drew during college. He added the Jones upon the death of his maternal grandfather, who raised him, when his grandaddy died. It’s alittle bit different case than the norm, as his name shares the maternal maiden name-paternal surname style, but the first bit was because of his grandfather and not his mother.
Then there’s this dude, who has a Dutch spin on double-barrelled surnames - instead of hyphenating, they insert the Dutch for “or” between the two.
I’m guessing among other things they’ll need a Christmas tree and a menorah.
Without knowing where the OP is from (Scotland, perhaps?), I don’t know if he meant American football or proper football ( 
). But the obvious example that came to mind was Shaun Wright-Phillips, who is the adopted son of Ian Wright. AFAIK, the Phillips part is the surname of his biological father (or possibly his mother, I can’t find a decent reference). (Ian Wright married SWP’s mother, and legally adopted SWP, and the couple have other children together.)
I was thinking of both- SWP specifically, and some Amercian foosball players as well.
I think there’s another EPL player, maybe Morten Gamst Pedersen (sp?), while not hyphenated, Gamst and Pedersen are both last names, and now he is only using one and not both as he used to?
From wiki:
So I guess he has two last names, was previously using one of them, and is now using the other.
Ain’t love grand? 
Actually, he might well go by José Luis Zapatero; in the case of somebody with a very common father’s last name and an uncommon mother’s last name, they often choose to go primarily by the mother’s last name. Other examples are Federico (García) Lorca and Pablo (Ruiz) Picasso.
I can see the day when double last names will become a nightmare for equipment managers having to fit them on the back of uniforms and for commentators of fast-paced sports like hockey.
Hey, I used to date a guy who did that and I never realized that was the reason.
Antonio, not Anthony. Even though he and his wife are getting divorced, he’s keeping the smooshed name.
I can’t believe everyone but one person is missing the most common reason for it. Jimmy Smith-Jones is not the kid of Mr and Mrs Smith-Jones. He’s the kid of Mr Smith and Ms Jones. Usually, the parents aren’t married, so no smooshing required. In at least one instance that I personally know, the parents are still married. The mom just kept her name.
In my personal experience, it’s overwhelmingly due to unwed parents, not smooshing.
Wow, I’ve NEVER heard of this, and I’m an unwed mother. (Well, was, until I got married, but the kid was 6 by that point.) My choices as I saw them were to give him my name or his father’s name. I chose his father’s, which I now wish I hadn’t.
That is pretty much the case with Vennegoor of Hesselink, cited above. His name just about fits across his shoulders, but the commentators had to work hard when he was on the field during the 2006 World Cup, what with having to gabble out a heptasyllabic surname. 