Double barreled surnames?

I often wonder how people fill out official forms like exam entries nd passport applications! I only have three names and on some forms there is only just space with the system os a letter per block.

grannyactivist
May I, with respect ask that you do not put your own interpretation on my words.
I did not write that I approved or disapproved. I wrote that, IMO it was ok to not approve, just as I might write that it's ok not to approve of 90yr olds wearing mini skirts.
Thanks.

Some GNers would have a bit of bother with form filling if they adopted the current craze of double barralling their surnames as some have been married two or three times.

barralling *barrelling

I quite like double barrelled names. My daughter and GD have hyphenated first names, but I never thought about a person with a double-barrelled surname marrying another person with a double-barrelled surname.

Long ago I read a wedding announcement for a Mr Castle and a Miss Howard. I do hope they double-barrelled.

When two teachers at our local school married, they double-barrelled, but each kept their own name first. So she became (say) Mrs Fothering-Smyth and he was Mr Smyth-Fothering. Challenging for those of us with very little memory.

Interesting. Scottish girls use to have their mum's maiden names as ' middle' names. A few I know used them as first part of double barrel names . Maybe it comes from that?

On a completely silly note, I used know a young man and woman who fell in love and decided to get married. His surname was Plum and hers was Jamb – the double-barrel was irresistible.

andiaccl That's interesting. Mr absent's family included the mother's maiden name as the middle name for the first-born son. As his father was married twice, his first wife having died, Mr absent and his eldest half-brother both have their [different] mother's family names between their Christian and surnames.

I quite like the Icelandic thing of being called Henrysson or Ngalsdottir, so everything changes with each generation. I have been married twice and kept my maiden name mainly because I was already quite well know by that name in my own profession.

Seadragon
Are you a teacher by any chance?

I'm a mixed one. Married back when there was no choice, so when had DS before divorce I kept his last name. He is grown now, and I remarried. Since I was the last of my family name, I used my Christian name, Maiden name and DH name. No hyphen. Most places in USA just ask for middle initial. On my official documents I am glad to still use my DF surname with DH surname.

I've noticed homosexual friends double barrelling their names when they marry. I presume it stops one being thought of as the husband and one as the wife.

I always remember Rowan Atkinson in the 'Secret Policeman's Ball' doing a spoof roll call at a private school. The name that got the biggest laugh was 'Strangely-Brown'. I don't know why but it's very funny.

If that's your family name (and it has been for generations) then it's not pretentious!

My husband has his godparents' surname as one of his Christian names so we have occasionally been double barrelled by folk who don't know us!

Our goddaugther married last year and she and new husband have added their surnames together (not, I am told, double-barrelled!) as he only has one Christian name.

It's a matter of choice!

The whole thing is pretentious and foolish
Gabriella which bit?

PECS ???

Well really!
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name (or two) would smell as sweet."

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

Personally, I think it is much posher to leave out the hyphen.

Hyphens are very infra dig.

The Windsors formerly had a triple family name. Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. I expect there was a good reason for it.

What - with hyphens?
How down market.

Yes.
They're posh!

Maybe no hyphens I will look it up.

The Independent says that Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was a house name not a family name. Windsor is a house name and a family name.

PECS, definitely! My mother was married 3 times by the time I was 8 and I had my name changed each time. Getting a DBS is a nightmare.

Where I work (in a college) there are many, many staff and students with double barrelled names. It becomes problematic when needing to print their names on certain documents, the length involved! I do get it however; I don't think its pretentious, but it can be annoying