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#73364 06/21/02 11:32 AM
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I get the idea that the double-name situation in the UK is altogether different. I'll welcome a correction

Only slightly different really, slithy, as per my previous post on this thread. The common factor is that - for whatever reason - the wife-to-be wants to retain her maiden name (incidentally, am I right in thinking that this terminology is frowned upon? Why so?), and the husband-to-be is happy for her to do so. Any kids take on the double-barrelled name, thus giving explicit credit to their family tree on both sides.

You do get the odd triple-barrelled name, but far more commonly the least valued additions will be dropped. Of course the least valued addition may be the woman's or the man's birth-name these days. And really even in the old days, if a lower-ranking man married someone like a princess or queen, you'd hardly expect her to drop her surname, which may, of course, be double-barrelled already.

As a side-note, my wife has retained her maiden name, and for a number of reasons we've given our kids her surname rather than mine. People can struggle with this one, but I've become used to being referered to as if her surname was mine. A little way for social evolution to go yet, eh?




#73365 06/21/02 03:42 PM
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Hey Fish, your exposé of double-barrelled last names, ending with the last name your children use, reminds me of an article I read somewhere (uhhh, think it might have been in Maclean's, "Canada's news magazine!"): the young couple took each other's names, both of 'em did. Can't remember the names in question, but here's how it went:

Bryan Smith was marrying Lydia Jones, so they became the Smith-Joneses, and he was Brian Smith-Jones and she was Lydia Smith-Jones.

Think that was how they arranged it (ie, I don't think the woman's surname went first). The article was written by the wife, who said that people they met were surprised that her husband had taken her name as well, resulting in their both being hyphenated.

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.

#73366 06/22/02 02:28 PM
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her maiden name (incidentally, am I right in thinking that
this terminology is frowned upon? Why so?),


Once upon a time the term maiden implied virgin. Nowadays, by the time a girl gets married she's rarely a "maiden," so the term is now obsolete.


#73367 06/25/02 03:59 PM
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Once upon a time the term maiden implied virgin

Indeed, Geoff, but that was "once upon a time". If someone told me that their (or someone else's) maiden name was such-and-such, I'd know exactly what they meant. But no way would that tell me anything about the married person's sexual activities (or lack of them) prior to marriage. In fact I would have to be a little deranged as well as antiquated to take it as saying anything about that.

Well, "deranged" I can take.

I suppose we're back to Political Correctness again.

[rant]
Proof, if such were required, that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Why should we allow a supposedly superior minority to dictate what we can and can't say?
[/rant]

Ah well, I live in hope that good sense will prevail.

Fisk




#73368 06/26/02 01:11 AM
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Hey Fish -

Like you, I gots no problem with it being called a "maiden name."

I also gots no problem with the first name being referred to as the "Christian" name - however, it don't seem to make much sense these days, when "Christian" names are so often NOT blatantly, er, "Christian." Instead of the ol' standbys from the Bible, there seem to be a lot of:

Tiffanys
Brandys
Cliffs
Kents
Clints

etc.

Anyway, "Christian" name don't apply to Jews and Muslims (or any followers of any other religions), so it seems inappropriate for that reason.

Interesting, though: it's not unusual for people to decide to go by their middle name rather than their first - which stymies people who want to ask, "What is your first name?"

I once dated a feller whose name was Greg. One day I asked him what his middle name was, and he said, "Gregory." I went blonde in a heartbeat and said, "You mean your name is Gregory Gregory?" Noooo. His name was David Gregory.

So why don't people give their children first names that they are going to use? Why didn't his parents call him "Gregory David"? What's up with that?!

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.

#73369 06/27/02 09:46 AM
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So why don't people give their children first names that they are going to use?

Because parents never do anything right, MG


#73370 06/27/02 12:06 PM
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I have neighbors who combined their last names to make a new one: Young and Baer became Youngbaer. that's the name the entire family uses now. I don't know if they had to do anything legally to make the change.



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#73371 06/27/02 01:49 PM
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Young and Baer became Youngbaer

As opposed to the combination Baeryoung, suitable for use when the couple contemplates having children?



#73372 06/27/02 02:41 PM
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Keiva: you are persona non grata anywhere on AWADtalk.


#73373 06/27/02 04:42 PM
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