What's the MN verdict on double barrelled surnames?

[melodyangel]

Would love to know peoples opinions on double barrelled surnames. Need to make a decision really soon!

[thecatisdead1]

No no no. Basically.

Everyone I know who has D-B their names has never used it all together. Most have ended up dropping the last name and just going by the first one, (including an aunt)
But about 2 did drop the first one and use the last one.

I went to uni with some people with D-B they were either stupidly posh or spent the 4 years correcting people when they said the D-B surname and made them use 1

Also you would probably find that some will just ignore one of the names, and not bother. And if you liked it you would find yourself constantly telling thouse people that it's 2.

Either way you'd find yourself constantly correcting people, which trust me when it comes to names gets on your tits nerves

Hope that helps

[Earlybird]

Am in favour if the surname is 'legitimately' double-barrelled....because it is the person's name, after all.

Not in favour when people 'concoct' double-barrelled surnames due to combining names after marriage. Seems pretentious, imo.

I only know one family with an inherited double-barrelled surname, and always think it must be a pain to spell out on the telephone/fill out on forms, etc. They often, for convenience, shorten it to hyphenated letters (ex: Charles L-B), as the full name is almost 20 letters long.

[JanMorrow]

It depends on the names you are putting together I think.. if they're both short and they sound nice together, ok.. if not though, why bother?

I would have considered it but our names together sound ridiculous.

[CMOTdibbler]

Well, dh and I have our own names, and ds is myname-hisname and we are very happy with it. I don't think its any more pretentious than choosing a foofy first name

[SweetestThing]

If someone with a double-barrelled name has children with someone else with a double-barrelled name, will their children have quadruple-barrelled names?

[CMOTdibbler]

Amazingly, they can make their own decisions on whether to give a name each/use one persons name/ make one up etc.

[AnnieLobeseder]

I've recently gone double-barrelled after 10 years of marriage cos I miss my old name but it would be chaos if I changed back completely. I'm still debating whether to drop the hyphen.

I neither know nor care if it's pretentious. They're both my names after all.

[melodyangel]

Ok a little bit of history both DS's have my surname but their dad and I have just got married and DH would like the kids to have his name too as he is the last male in his family. The DS's are both in school so already have their own identify with my surname so we figured we will have to double barrel them it's just I'm not that keen although I don't really know why.

Both surnames are short and sound nice together.

[MovingAndScared]

I think it does sound a bit posh -although no more as someone else said than some first names - like the word foofy!!
I kept my surname when we got married and my DCs have my surname as one of their middle names - have their dad's as their main surname - did consider double barrelled which did sound nice but DH wasn't keen and I wasn't that bothered
to be honest through it will be a PITA to change all of your names - why don't you ask the DS's what they think?

[whackamole]

we have double-barrelled our sons names as i do not want to change my name when we marry next year. it sounds extra-poncey with us as my surname is foreign and OHs is not :)

in the end though, who really cares what other people think? this is your name not anyone elses, if you don't feel right about taking someone else's name, then don't!

[raspberrytipple]

We wont be double barreling our names because they are both odd names and a bit crap and so sound even worse together!! but if the names sound nice together and you want to keep yours but take your OH's its not a bad idea. I know a few people who have double barreled on marriage but ended up just using their maiden name though.

[MayorNaze]

poncey