Double barreled surnames?

I hate the fact that I lost my surname when I married. I liked it and don't like my married name. In the seventies we had no choice.

There is a chap where I work who has such a name. We refer to him (not when he is there) as Mr Double-Barrelled, and everyone knows who we are talking about!

My daughter in law kept her maiden name and made it doubled barrelled with my sons name but only she uses that, their child my DGD has her fathers name. I think it depends on the husbands name. The new wife does not always like to give up a rare name for a more common one.
we live in a designer world and they design their name too, up to each of them if that makes them happy and thy all agree. I think they think it sounds posh. LOL

My surname was Gibbons so I was glad to change it to a good Scottish surname as I was fed up of all the 'ape' jokes. What strikes me about all these options about surnames is that it will be harder than ever to track down old friends. It's hard enough keeping track of female friends especially if they marry, remarry, move etc. I always list friends' addresses by first name rather than surname for that reason.....

When I was single I had an unusual surname and wanted to keep it because of that, but also wanted to take my husband's name. They really didn't sound right together so I abandoned the idea of going double barrelled.
Also when single I worked briefly in medical research. My supervisor used her maiden name for publications although I knew her by her married name. As I have one publication in my maiden name I would have done the same for professional reasons but it became irrelevant as I didn't continue to work in that field.
I think if you marry someone with a common name like Smith, going double barrelled makes sense to identify you amongst the many. I knew a family who all had a surname as one of their middle names but were not officially double barrelled. Their surname was Smith and another family of Smiths who were in the same circle of friends happened to have 2 children with the same christian names as the other Smith family. The only way to distinguish in the end became to use the common middle name as if it was a double barrelled surname.

Works differently in Spain. My son-in-law has the first of both his parents surnames, women don’t take their husband’s name, keep their own - so my daughter still has her maiden name, and my grandsons have the first of their parents surnames. Three different surnames in their house, two of which are double barrelled but without a hyphen. It gets very complicated because boys and girls in a family take different names, not quite sure how it works, too complicated for me!

Funny how double-barrelled has gone from posh to chavvy in one generation

Maizie it looks as if no one knows the answer, only time will tell.

When I married I doubt we would have been accepted in our honeymoon hotel if I had kept my maiden name. It would most certainly have been frowned upon and no one would have believed we were married.

I had to get my first passport which was sent to the vicar and he could only give it to me once we were legally married.

My dad was given his mothers maiden name as one of his Christian names when he was born, as this was Smith it would have made a super double barrelled name today !!

P.S. I also had been married for 40 odd years.
It wouldn’t have occurred to me to keep my maiden name.
Also, it wouldn’t have sounded right if I had.

Who cares?

It seems to be the fashion now for young women when they marry, to keep their surnames and also take on their married partners surname.
Hence, the double barrelled title.

I think they feel that they are still independent by keeping their own names. Seems daft to me.

jane10 I was married 46 years ago and kept my surname.

I have worked with many women who have retained their Maiden name for professional reasons but use their H's name for Personal life & DC.

My DD (same sex marriage) couldn't wait to drop her F's name & take her Partner's. Both DGSs have her Partner's surname.

I have changed mine on marriage although with H no2 I changed it by Deed Poll long before we married but that's another story . I love my late DH's surname & took his surname on marriage, it is very unusual, Austrian origin although his Paternal Grandmother was Russian, I always have to spell it out.

Don't really have answer for OP but I suspect people meeting & Marrying or whatever arrangements they chose will amend Surnames to their own liking

I know a couple, both doubled barrelled names who married two years ago. They dropped one of his names and became triple barrelled with her two and the other one of his. I was born with a db name and hated it. My ggf was knighted for service to the Liberal party and thought his common surname wasn’t posh enough so he added in his second name and subsequently I was lumbered with it. Luckily my husband has a short name and I use that now.

Miss Charlotte Cholmondely-Huntington-Barquing,
Married her lover, Sam Brown
Her father, Colonel Cholmondely-H-B,
Thought it would bring her down.
“Sam!” He barked in commanding tones,
His voice as sharp as a knife
“You must adopt a suitable name
To reflect on your perfect wife!”
Sam gladly agreed to give it a go,
He really was thrilled to bits,
So the couple were thenceforth always known
As the Pretentious-Upperclass-Twits.

I worked where two colleagues.
married. Female had surname of say Hopton. Male's surname McDonald. Both adopted one another's surname. Female became Hannah Hopton McDonald whilst male was Malcolm McDonald Hopton. It was a nightmare as this was a local authority office where clients came into to see specific workers and they were constantly befuddled with the names. Eventually the couple dropped the add ons for work and became known as Mr & Mrs McDonald personally.

Before I married I had a difficult north European surname, people didn’t know how to spell or say it. My married name is a plain 4 letter name, but can be spelt 3 different ways! My 4 letter Christian name can be male or female but spelt differently. Many people attempt to spell it the boys way. So I still have to spell both of my names to save mistakes.

When I checked into a hotel in Spain, the receptionist denied I had a booking. Luckily I had a copy of their confirmation, she laughed and pointed out that they read it as a mans name spoken quite differently and when booking in together people assume my OH is me.

Nothing to do with double barrels but just the difficulty of dealing with even the plainest names.

My dd is double barrelled. Mainly because we weren't married and we couldn't think of a middle name.
She doesn't use her father's name in day to day life, because he's not in her life really, never has been since she was young. She didn't drop it legally. She may do in the future. She hasn't married and her children only have my family surname.

I married in 1970 and had no idea 'real' people could retain their maiden name (gosh that say's a lot doesn't it). I mourned for the person I had been - sort of felt my prior life was wiped away. Of course one moves on, but I was proud of my parents and sad not to have a formal way to show the connection. No man has to do this. Today I'd definitely keep first surname and add second - the hyphen doesn't matter either way.

One lad I taught in 80s joined his birth father's name to his adopted father's name - his idea. I found this quite moving.

Keep names as short as possible - it makes completing forms so much easier

I’m double-barrelled, through no fault of my own, and it amuses me that I am often perceived as posh, when I am in fact nothing but a humble serf !

Oh I love this, my Mother’s bridesmaid eventually married a Mr. Hovel only to discover after she had married him that he was actually Mr. Bladen-Hovel pronounced Ho vell

Because he was a gardener and the family had come down in the world he had dumped the earlier bit of the surname and was introduced to his bride to be by another Kentish lad who made something of a joke of both their ‘yokel’ accents. It was only at the ceremony that she found out her actual new name - oh boy did she ‘big it up’ thereafter.

I think it was a way, originally, of keeping tabs on where aristocratic daughters had gone, but now it is a real chavvy thing to do.

My gay daughter’s children have both her surname and her wife’s surname. My daughter and her wife also have both surnames although the names are not hyphenated.