Hyphenated Names

Here is something that just occurred to me today.

A good friend of mine from college just had a baby. He and his fiancé are very modern individuals, and as such, she is keeping her last name. Thus, the baby has a hyphenated last name. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s say it is Armbruster-Poindexter. Hyphenated last names are somewhat unwieldy, I think, but it is not too much of a problem, and is common enough these days. It must be a pain to tell your teacher you name is Anastasia Armbruster-Poindexter (AAP from here on out) when you are 3 and starting pre-school, however.

Anyway, so let’s say little AAP grows up to become a wonderful, smart, beautiful woman and decides to get married to the perfect man. His name, for the sake of this post, is Maximillian Hassenfeffer-Oldendorff (MHO). As you can see, his parents ALSO went for the hyphenated last name. Being the ultra-modern (futuristic) couple AAP and MHO are, AAP is keeping her name.

Fast forward a few more years, and AAP and MHO are going to become parents! Joy! They have decided on the first name Persephone and middle name Magdalena (each being a traditional name in the parents’ families). So, is the baby’s name going to be Persephone Magdalena Armbruster-Poindexter-Hassenfeffer-Oldendorff (PMAPHO)? What happens when she gets married to another ultra-modern man, and then has a kid? When does the madness stop!?!?

For the record, I do not personally have an issue with combined names, I really just want to know how this works logistically.

My brain just vaporlocked.

Been done:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Married_and_maiden_names#Spanish-speaking_world

What about last names that don't pertain to either parent?

My girlfriend and I agreed that she if/when we get married, and she still doesn't want to change her name, that we may both change our last names. That way, if we have kids, they don't have names different from their parents, nor are they wacky hyphenated names.

We both liked the idea of reviving long lost family surnames, in fact we both share one. Kelly is maternal last name and her great grandmothers as well.

Don't get me started. I absolutely hate hyphenated last names and find them unutterably pretentious. Plus, the only women who seem to insist on hyphenating already have awkward last names and are marrying some guy who also has an awkward last name. Half the time they sound like some kind of obscure disease.

I told my wife when we got married that I was perfectly happy if she kept her maiden name, just for the love of Rumpleminze-Jagermeister DO NOT hyphenate it.

For kids, I am fine with boys take the father's last name, girls take the mother's. Seems fair and avoids the situation from the OP completely.

There used to be a kid on a testimonial ad for some tutoring program named "Cooper Newby-Stockman" or something like that. Even as an adult, I just wanted to pound his face in on the playground.

In reply to ST_ZX2:

My work here is done.

La-a Pronounced LA-DASH-A because the dash ain't silent........

My work here is done.....

In reply to GameboyRMH:

Yeah, I always thought those were awesome, since I view it as a totally different cultural phenomenon. This was a way to trace family lineage, and they would always have a shortened "working" version of the name (usually the father's, I believe).

My fiance is planning on dropping her middle name and making here maiden name her middle name.

I thought this was going to be about first names.
Have you heard of this first name? La-A

My wife is a school teacher and especially when she was in Houston, TX, in a more "urban setting" crazy names with random punctuation or capital letters put in the middle were common.

As for the name above...Ladasha

Edit: apparently Yamaha's work was done here before I posted.

I've told my girlfriend that if she ever wants to get married to me, she's changing her name. The only way around that is if she gets a DR in front of it prior to marriage.

Sexist, chauvinistic, whatever, I don't care. That is one double standard I am happy to enforce. Don't know why I feel that way, but I do.

When my mom got married, she changed her name from First Middle Maiden to First Maiden Last.

I tease my son that he is going to marry a "strong" woman and he will change his last name to hers.

I hyphenated my name, not because I have unique last names (they're actually 2 of the most common surnames), but because I was adopted at age 9, and my 'maiden' name means a lot to me. It was expensive and took 2 years to get. My husband didn't really care about what happened in regard to my surname when we got married, and I'm glad for it, mostly because I can be a real pain in the rear about such things and it likely would have caused a lot of arguing

My kids have my husband's last name, for simplicity, and because I think hyphenating a kid's last name is dumb.

In reply to yamaha:

No words can describe my horror...

My wife just did the First, middle, maiden, married name. No hyphenation, just two middle names now. Works for me.

My last name is hyphenated due to adoption. My wife kept her maiden name because it really wasn't her maiden name until about a month before we got married. Kiddo carried her name because hyphenated last names suck.

Datsun1500 wrote:

JohnRW1621 wrote: I thought this was going to be about first names. Have you heard of this first name? La-A My wife is a school teacher and especially when she was in Houston, TX, in a more "urban setting" crazy names with random punctuation or capital letters put in the middle were common. As for the name above...Ladasha Edit: apparently Yamaha's work was done here before I posted.

That is an Urban Legend. There is also no lemonjello, orangejello, ABCDE, E36 M3head, etc.

I beg to differ on Orangelo and Lemongelo (the proper spellings) I can't discuss exactly HOW I know they exist..... but I know for a fact they do. And it's not second hand information... I've seen it with my own two eyes. I've also seen a Tangelo before... but that's just fruit, not fruit flavored horse hooves.

Datsun1500 wrote: That is an Urban Legend. There is also no lemonjello, orangejello, ABCDE, E36 M3head, etc.

Boy, you don't get out much do you?

My wife hyphenated her last name, her choice. It's because she has a long history with her original name, and does much business under it.

Originally, she kept hers when we got married, but it created many headaches, especially because she does much work with her father, having the same last name, but who isn't her husband (this confuses many people and agencies).

Equally, she couldn't possibly be married to me because my name is different and if I'm not her spouse, I cannot be legally connected to her or her business (again, confusion by many people and agencies).

She finally hyphenated the last name, and uses either depending on the circumstances. It has made life much easier for all of us.

Our sons last name is simply mine. No reason to hyphenate it.

Amusing to see how many people in this thread have their knickers in a twist over something that is of no concern to them.

mndsm wrote:

Datsun1500 wrote:

JohnRW1621 wrote: [...blockquoted backstory...]

That is an Urban Legend. There is also no lemonjello, orangejello, ABCDE, E36 M3head, etc.

I beg to differ on Orangelo and Lemongelo (the proper spellings) I can't discuss exactly HOW I know they exist..... but I know for a fact they do. And it's not second hand information... I've seen it with my own two eyes. I've also seen a Tangelo before... but that's just fruit, not fruit flavored horse hooves.

I can confirm that I've seen similarly screwy/unbelievable, though not those particular names. Similarly, I cannot... er... name names...

I'm amused by the historical last name thing in Scandinavia (particularly Norway? Not an expert...). Hypothetical example: Gustav Ericsson's son, Thor, got the name Thor Gustavsson. His daughter was Elsa Gustavsdotter...

"ash-ole-uh" Spelled A-S-S-H-O-L-E

I can also confirm the existence of a Felonie- Spelled IE because it's a girl... naturally.

My wife is Korean-American and in Korea nobody changes their name. What you get when you're born, which is the father's surname, is what you have forever. When we got married she changed her name officially in the USA and uses it for anything invoving the English language including official documents. For anything in Korean, she uses her maiden name. Works fine for us, you can't spell Rufledt very well in Korean anyway, where most family names have only 1 syllable, and no sound like the letter F. This way we achieve cultural normalcy in both cultures, except for the whole interracial marriage thing, but race is a false construct anyway so we can ignore that.

Also, anyone remember an SNL skit with Nicholas Cage where they were figuring out a name for their kid so he wouldn't get bullied? His name was Oz-Weep-Eh, spelled A-s-s-w-i-p-e

ransom wrote: I'm amused by the historical last name thing in Scandinavia (particularly Norway? Not an expert...). Hypothetical example: Gustav Ericsson's son, Thor, got the name Thor Gustavsson. His daughter was Elsa Gustavsdotter...

Yep, that's a Scandinavian and Icelandic tradition.

My mom hyphenated her last name when she got married. (Hey, it was the 70's.) I officially have two middle names, the latter being her maiden name, but no hyphens in my case.