Hyphenated names--they must be stopped (2 Viewers)

[Kevin Hewell]

Growing up, a lot of my friends' middle names were like this.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

I'm not a big fan of hyphenated names, either, but I think people should be able to use whatever name they want.


>What happens when those kids grow up and get married to another person with a hyphenated lastname? Do we link all four last names with hyphens?

I've wondered that, too.


>My last is two words. Brown Eyes, not hyphenated. [removed email story]

Good thing Eddie Van Halen & Osama bin Laden don't work at your company.


>We had Hillary Rodham Clinton. No hyphen necessary. And George Walker Bush.

The way Hillary does it is common, using her maiden name as her new middle name. In Bush's case, that's the middle name he was given at birth, so it's not relevant to this discussion.


>People don't marry for life anymore; half of all marriages are destined to fail, so why dive in head first?

Sounds like you are arguing for staying single? The fact that half of marriages fail doesn't mean there is a 50% chance YOURS will. It is up to you & your spouse to make it work. It's not like couples are chosen at random to be forced to get a divorce.

Anyway, if the marriage fails, I think whether someone changed their name is a minor point overall.


>I DO NOT want my wife (should I ever get married) to have my last name. That name belongs to the children of my father and his direct descendants, plain and simple.

Interesting opinion. That last sentence makes you sound very traditional, but if you were, you'd want your wife to take your name. Is there a tradition somewhere where the kids get the father's last name, but the wife doesn't?


>Think about it: Do you need to "officially" declare your friendship with your best guy/gal friend. No.

No, but a friendship is not supposed to be an exclusive relationship as marriage is. You are allowed, even encouraged to have other friends.


I knew a woman who was really upset she had taken her husband's last name. I asked why she didn't keep hers if she felt that way. She said if she had, her husband would not have married her. Big surprise- they recently got divorced! Think about it- if people can't even agree or accomodate their spouse on something like this, how is their marriage going to work?

If I were getting married, I'd expect my wife to take my name. But if she wanted to keep hers, it wouldn't bother me, although I know it would cause hassles. I would NOT change mine, & if she wanted to go the hyphen route with hers, I'd try to talk her into going the Hillary route.


This is a bit off-topic, but when I was a kid I saw the actress Shirley Temple Black on a talk show. I knew there was a child star named Shirley Temple, so I thought this lady must be the "black version" of that actress (whatever that means- I was about 6 at the time), yet she looked white on TV. I remember thinking it was odd that she had to put "black" after her name. No clue that she had married someone named Black.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Was sent this in an email and thought of this thread

http://www.htguide.com/forum/attachm...ntid=777&stc=1

 

[Julian Reville]

OK, you guys have got me thinking (I think). I'm not smart enough to solve the hyphen question, so my solution is that we combine the solutions: a first name, follwed by a son-of or daughter-of name, followed by the old what-we-do name (Baker, Cook, Cartwright, etc.) Of course, with modern occupations, this may sound a little funny at first (Julian Julianson Veterinarian) but we'll all get used to it. And no using part-time jobs to get to use a hyphen!

 

[mark alan]

Julian,

I a person switches careers, can they use a hyphen?

Then I can be Mr. Engineer-Attorney

 

[Julian Reville]

NO, NO, NO!

If you switch careers, you must go to the Social Security Adminstration to be re-named, then go to the DMV to get a new driver's license. Anticipation of this process will probably lead to an increase in the time people spend in their current jobs.

 

[Malcolm R]

Not to mention all the time wasted constantly changing the name in your underwear.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Hmm Andrew Mauriceson Geographic Information Systems Specialist is a little long don't you think

 

[MarkHastings]

If you're in the internet industry, can you use backslashes instead of hyphens?

 

[Yee-Ming]

"Van" is Dutch for "from", so in Eddie's case, being of Dutch descent, his family was originally "from Halen". The Prussian/German equivalent is "Von".

Osama bin Laden's name is something that still mystifies me. "Bin" is literally Malay for "son of" (e.g. Mohamed bin Ali), with "binte" the female equivalent "daughter of" (e.g. Sharifah binte Ali). So to us South-east Asians, he's "Osama son of Laden", but I'm pretty sure the Arabs don't use the "Bin" the same way as our Malay brethren here. Perhaps they have adopted surnames and retained the original patronymic as a surname, the way the Irish and Scots use "O" and "Mac"? So "Bin Laden" is now a surname, the way O'Donald and MacDonald are now surnames, rather than "son of Donald"?

 

[Jeff_HR]

I don't believe in hyphenated names. If the woman did not want to use my last name then she can continue to use her last name & any kids get mine.