[Fleecewife]

I've just been reading about Tilly Christmas and Kieran White who, on their marriage, have taken the joint surname White-Christmas     That's lovely, but what do you think about couples taking on a double barrel surname when they marry?   Fair enough, yes?  But then what happens when the children get married?  Do they take on four family names?  Do they revert to just one of their parent's surnames?


I quite like the American way where some women keep their mothers name and their father's, but not hyphenated, but men don't seem to do that.  Nordic names often end in -dottir or -sson, but I don't know how that progresses, if it does.


I have noted that legally my name is: two given names followed by my father's family name, followed by my husband's family name. My mother's legal name however, was her given name, then her mother's family name, then her father's family name, then her first husband's family name followed by her second husband's family name - quite a mouthful!


Just cogitating, and we're not even in enforced lockdown, just shielding as usual here in Scotland.

[SallyintNorth]

I went through all this when I married, and we decided to have a new family name, which we appended to each of our pre-marital names.  We thought that gave good traceability as first generation birth certificates would show parental surname plus paternal surnames of each parent. 

The weeks in which we were deciding on our new "family" surname were great fun, as friends near and far offered suggestions...   My favourite was a letter arriving addressed to Mr and Ms Qwerty-Luxury Yacht.  But the hubs-to-be wouldn't go for that, spoilsport.

Ironically, after all that thought, we never had any children.  And now are divorced and have both dropped the chosen family name.   

[Rosemary]

Dan's my second husband - if I had reverted to my maiden name and we'd hyphenated ours, we'd be the Champion-Hunters or Hunter-Champions. 

[Fleecewife]

Dan's my second husband - if I had reverted to my maiden name and we'd hyphenated ours, we'd be the Champion-Hunters or Hunter-Champions. 

Brilliant!  At my school the geography teacher Miss Shepherd married Mr Woollie, but they didn't hyphenate either 

[harmony]

Dan's my second husband - if I had reverted to my maiden name and we'd hyphenated ours, we'd be the Champion-Hunters or Hunter-Champions. 

Brilliant!  At my school the geography teacher Miss Shepherd married Mr Woollie, but they didn't hyphenate either 

Did they have a lot of lambs? 

[arobwk]

Slightly off piste, my daughter Sorrel is presently dating someone whose family name is Sorrel !!


Someone once told me that Spanish female children keep their maternal family name:  I'm uncertain about (when did a maternal family name start?) - it might be false news, but I thought I'd mention anyway.

[macgro7]

Someone once told me that Spanish female children keep their maternal family name:  I'm uncertain about (when did a maternal family name start?) - it might be false news, but I thought I'd mention anyway.

All spanish citizens legally inherit fathers and mothers surname. I.e. mr Gonzalez and mrs Sanchez have a baby it will be called Gonzalez-Sanchez. But hes or hers children will only inherit Gonzalez (i.e. his or hers fathers surname).
I hope that makes sense 

[Lesley Silvester]

When my son was about to be married, he and his fiancee had discussed what surname they should use - his or hers. In the end they chose to use his as he is better known in his professional field than she is in hers, but she kept hers as a middle name and he changed his by deed poll to have her surname as a middle name.


I did know a couple, not married, who had two children together. They decided that it wasn't fair on the children to have to have either parent's surname so they each were given different surnames. For their first, they chose to use her grandmother's maiden name which was Lewis as her surname. The poor old lady was terribly confused and told people, "They said they're calling the baby Lewis after me, but I thought it was a girl."

[Fleecewife]

Dan's my second husband - if I had reverted to my maiden name and we'd hyphenated ours, we'd be the Champion-Hunters or Hunter-Champions. 

Brilliant!  At my school the geography teacher Miss Shepherd married Mr Woollie, but they didn't hyphenate either 

Did they have a lot of lambs? 

I don't know as I left at the end of sixth form and never went back to visit. I wonder what names they would have given the lambs children?  It's ridiculous but as an all-girls school in the '50s and '60s, we were all so embarrassed when any of our teachers got married, so we wouldn't have been thinking about what might be the result, ie babies.

[Fleecewife]

Someone once told me that Spanish female children keep their maternal family name:  I'm uncertain about (when did a maternal family name start?) - it might be false news, but I thought I'd mention anyway.

All spanish citizens legally inherit fathers and mothers surname. I.e. mr Gonzalez and mrs Sanchez have a baby it will be called Gonzalez-Sanchez. But hes or hers children will only inherit Gonzalez (i.e. his or hers fathers surname).
I hope that makes sense 

Yes, that's what I was wondering for the UK - how many names would any children aquire here from two double-barrelled parents.
In past centuries it was only the 'upper classes' who used double-barrelled names, and sometimes it was a condition of inheriting an estate if it was someone with a different family name, say a cousin,  that they had to take on the family name attached to the estate.  Also occasionally where a woman had a large inheritance it could be a condition of marriage that her husband took her family name to continue it down the line.
Local to us, a very old estate came up for sale years ago and the buyer double barrelled the previous owners ancient name onto their own unknown one so they sounded posher than they were  .

[macgro7]

Yes, that's what I was wondering for the UK - how many names would any children aquire here from two double-barrelled parents.
In past centuries it was only the 'upper classes' who used double-barrelled names, and sometimes it was a condition of inheriting an estate if it was someone with a different family name, say a cousin,  that they had to take on the family name attached to the estate.  Also occasionally where a woman had a large inheritance it could be a condition of marriage that her husband took her family name to continue it down the line.
Local to us, a very old estate came up for sale years ago and the buyer double barrelled the previous owners ancient name onto their own unknown one so they sounded posher than they were  .

It seems to be the case in other countries too. I was recently reading about WW2 and most Polish generals and high ranking officers had double (noble sounding) surnames. Later during communist times most officers had peasants surnames. In UK there isnusually no difference between posh and peasant surnames, but in Poland you can often tell.

[Dan]

Slightly off piste, my daughter Sorrel is presently dating someone whose family name is Sorrel !!

She'd be in good company. The footballing Neville brothers' dad was Neville Neville!

[arobwk]

Slightly off piste, my daughter Sorrel is presently dating someone whose family name is Sorrel !!

She'd be in good company. The footballing Neville brothers' dad was Neville Neville!

I'm still working that one out, but, so far, I'm thinking Neville brothers' grand-parents possibly had a wicked sense of humour

[Lesley Silvester]

We have Latvian friends who have the same surname - almost. The husband's name ends in ski and the wife's ends in ska. Our Polish neighbours both have the same surname. I think that in Ghana the wife keeps the same surname. A Ghanaian friend kept her name but the children had the father's surname and I thought it was just them but her sister did the same. I'm not sure. Anyone know?


MY ex son-in-law is Zimbabwean and his surname is different to his parents and brothers. He said that when children become adults they can choose their own surname.

[Fleecewife]

Slightly off piste, my daughter Sorrel is presently dating someone whose family name is Sorrel !!

She'd be in good company. The footballing Neville brothers' dad was Neville Neville!

I'm still working that one out, but, so far, I'm thinking Neville brothers' grand-parents possibly had a wicked sense of humour

A patient we had was called Richard Head.  We all thought how unfortunate that was and that his parents could not have realised what they were lumbering their new baby with.  Then we discoved the father's name was also Richard Head, so he was deliberately and knowingly giving his son a lifetime of grief being called Dick Head.  perhaps he thought that if it was good enough for him then his son could survive it too