Double barreled surnames?

Riverdaffy My daughter's partner is Peruvian, and also has a cumbersome double surname. I think that Peruvians, too, have a complicated system similar to the one you mentioned. Their daughter has been given just the first half of his surname. They are planning to marry. I don't know what name she will take, or if she will keep her own. I must ask her.

I doubt the Spanish system is complicated for the Spaniards, after all it’s been around for a while.
In my experience double barrelled marrying double-barrelled in the UK take one from each side, quite simple really.

Some of these poor little things are going to have to write such long names when their classmates just have to write Jo Smith.

I was glad DS3 had a short name when we had to embroider it in the gingham nursery overall. Luckily a friend not only made the overall but did the embroidery as well.

I used to work with a Welsh man who named his child Eirerian or something similar which I couldn't pronouce, or spell, always felt sorry for the little chap going to school in England

I know a lady who had a double barreled maiden name and married a Mr double barrel. She choose to drop her maiden name completely and take his, but that was about 30 years ago.
His name was from putting together his surname from his birth father who died young, and a much loved step father.

Nonnie, like you I've always wondered what happens when two "double-barrelled" people marry. (Perhaps they each keep their own name?)
When I married DH (over 35 years ago) I kept my maiden name. We're known simply as "Mary Jones & John Smith". (Real names have been changed here, by poster's choice.) I already had DS, who shared my surname. Never been a problem - legally or otherwise. (I think the person who found it hardest was my stepmother - I think she wanted me to change my name from her's!)

Dh’s family dropped the first half of their double-barrelled name but as it was a girl’s name many of the daughters and granddaughters have it as a middle name.
I took my husband’s name gladly when we married - it’s the same as my mother’s maiden name!
I only know one person with a triple-barrelled name and in that case the first and third names are the same.

I know a couple who are called the James Hall Angus Smyth's (seriously ) for just that reason. The James family wanted to pass on their name and when one married a Hall kept it. The Smyths Family took in a cousins child and adopted them keeping the surname Angus to remember the real parents by. The James-Hall family felt strongly about keeping their name as did the Angus Smyths so the said resulted child was called James Hall Angus Smyth, (pronounced s-my-th, what cracked me up was when that child turned 18 he changed his name by deed poll to plain Smyth (Prounounced Smith) he only kept the spelling of his last name the same because it made some paperwork easier.

I double barrelled my name when I got married. I was 3 years into a teaching degree and I was just about to qualify. I was also teaching in the school I was going to work in and I wanted to use the same name I'd had for a long time. My daughter was also known as my previous surname so I wanted the link. I think it is judgemental to assume that the reasons for doing this are snobbish.

When we married at 19, the registrar put me off keeping my own surname by saying it would be costly and complicated to do. So I lost my own surname and took his.

When he asked what I would like for our 20th wedding anniversary, I said (rather tongue in cheek) that I would like my own name back.

So the whole family (incuding our two DD's changed our surname by deed of name change at the local solicitor to double barrel both of our surnames.

Last year when my elder DD married, her new husband changed his own surname to ours. So now there are more of us!

Hardly pretentious - just so happy not to have lost my identity - or to have a different surname to my children

Here in Scotland it has always been the convention to retain your maiden name by giving it to your DC as a middle name and when you die you are Mary MacDonald wife of Ian Reid on your gravestone, not, Mrs Mary Reid.

However it seems to me that women are just exchanging one man's name for another if their name is their father's name so not a nod to feminism.
I know a man who changed his name to Mother's son after his father left so became.
Motherson.
I think your answer about double barrelled surnames Nonnie, is that they just choose which ones to drop.

PennyWhistle - way to go!
icanhandthemback - yep there are so many judgemental comments on this thread directed at people who don't follow the 'traditional' route of the wife giving up her name, with all that entails, on marriage.

The whole thing is pretentious and foolish.

I am onto my third name. Had my dad's surname as a child, my DHs when I married then chose one of my own when I felt grown up! I occasionally double barrel (no hyphen ) when at medical appointments as forgot to inform the NHS , way back in the 80s, that I had changed my name, by deed poll. All medical records are still in DH surname so I sign any medical forms with my current surname as part of a double barrel name! I have lived longest with my current name!

Gabriella which bit?

I agree with some here, the children of unmarried parents often have the two surnames, also another thing these days, some women keep their own maiden name, dont bother changing."The times they are a changing "

I have one DD who uses her husband's name as do her children but my other daughter , unmarried, chose to give her children her surname (my DH surname) as she and her partner thought it was a nicer surname and went with their given names better!! No-one seems perturbed by it. Especially the children who say they are pleased about the choice their parents made!

Nanny41, the children of married parents often have two last names. We were away with a group of 50 couples with children for a big celebration. Our rooms had names on the doors, almost all the children had two names, lots had only their mothers name (married parents here) and very few, were from families who shared one last name. As you say, the times they are a changing

My dil has a professional career and kept her own maiden name when she married my son.
When dgd came along she was given mum's surname as a middle name and then dad's surname. No hyphen and no double barrell.

I grew up with my mother's maiden name as my middle name, again no hyphen or double barrell.
The only difference between me and the posh folks was a hyphen.

I work in a hospital pharmacy, and it does cause problems when printing medicine labels-we only have so many characters we can print; and double-barrelled names get cut short sometimes.

My son has a double-barrelled first name and recently added my partners name to his surname so he also has a DB surname. People always comment on how professional his 'new' surname sounds.

Bit harsh readymeals, it’s neither posh nor chavvy, just a sign of the times . Women no longer need to feel part of a patriarchy by taking their husband’s name. Sharing seems fairer.

I kept my own name when I married. When we had kids we gave them both of our names but no hyphen. Its up to them what they do with their names if and when they marry, but I know for sure they wont be adding to them by having 3 last names!

My mother once told me, 'You can call yourself anything you want as long as you sign legal documents with your legal name.'

When I married (late 60's) I knew I could keep my unusual maiden name if I wanted but chose not to. I felt proud to take my husband's name. When he died, friends asked if I'd go back to my maiden name but I didn't want to.
My son lives with his partner and her son, who uses Mum's name, rather than that of his birth father.

When I write to them (dgs loves getting mail) I address the letter to the "The *Bennett-Vodanovich Family" so no one is excluded.

My dgs loves this idea and says he wants his surname added to my son's. That's well into the future, if it happens.

*not their real names of course.

My daughter in law has kept her maiden name and added it to my son’s but the children just have their dad’s name.I think she told me that this is what is done in Canada, so a woman keeps her family name at marriage. Seems a great idea to me!

hicaz46, I don't mean anything bad by it, my own grandson has a double-barreled name cos his parents are not married.