hyphenated last names

[cellio]

Idle question:

Yesterday someone asked me if my husband and I have the same last name (we don't), and then asked why we didn't combine the names with a hyphen. We rejected that pretty much out of hand; I just don't care for it.

The practice has been around long enough that people who were born with hyphenated last names are now, potentially, marrying each other. I assume that no one hyphenates the hyphenated names, but I wonder what the most common practice is: keep your own, both take one set, or ditch all the hyphens in favor of something simpler?

Comments

Hyphenating and Other Oddities

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

My wife does not have my last name. We didn't this was a big deal. My mother, the control freak, had conniptions over it. She actually ORDERED me to ORDER my wife to change her name! I finally got her off my back by pointing out that my wife had numerous professional publications in her maiden name which was why she didn't change it (She does, but that had nothing to do with it.) It's only been the last couple of years that my mother has stopped sending holiday cards to "Mr & Mrs Salley".

I know one woman who threatened to hyphenate her maiden name with her husbands name specifically BECAUSE it wouldn't fit on computer forms! Her name would have been Rhonda Garbowski-Kolokowski!

Finally, I know a woman whose maiden name was "Bleu" (pronounce "Blue"). Her parents named her "Skye". Yes, her name was pronounced "Sky Blue". All during her teenaged years she kept saying, "I can't wait to get married and change my name." In 1976, she married James Walker! Freedom for one year! :D

Re: Hyphenating and Other Oddities

[cellio]

Kids ought to be able to seek damages against parents for names like "Skye Bleu". Yeesh.

After "Walker" turned out not to be safe, did she just give up and change her first name? Or did a lifetime of "Bleu" prep her for what would follow? (At least adults won't keep pestering you about it the way kids will. I hope.)