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Baby names

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Help with surname hyphenation decision!

28 replies

cantdecideonsurnamehelppp · 11/06/2021 19:13

I’m actually overdue at the moment, so baby girl’s arrival is imminent. But I’m still so torn on her surname. Not with baby’s dad but we are very good friends and hope to have a great co-parenting relationship. To pre-empt any ‘give baby your name’ comments, this is absolutely not going to happen. She will have some sort of amalgamation of both of our names, and not one or the other.

So with that said, I’m struggling with whether to use his name hyphen my name, or mine hyphen his. Or skip the hyphen altogether. The issue is that my surname is quite a nice, girls name - along the lines of something like Poppy. His is a standard surname but a name that can also be used as a first name for a boy, think something like Jackson. Again, not the real names but similar sounds ish and syllables.

First name is most likely to be a simple, one syllable name, not the name but for example Jane. His surname and the name we have chosen also start with the same letter.

So my options:

Jane Poppy-Jackson
Jane Jackson-Poppy
Jane Poppy Jackson
Jane Jackson Poppy

I worry that without the hyphen, my name will always be mistaken for a middle name. But I think it does sound better as opposed to his name first. Does it even matter how it sounds really? I’m totally overthinking it I think but just looking for opinions. And even advice from anyone whose kids do have both parents surnames and any sort of impact that it’s had? Any issues I should be aware of?

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stellarfox · 11/06/2021 19:21

I think whatever sounds best but definitely go with a hyphen if your surname is a girls name or will definitely look like a middle name and be forgotten. Jane Poppy-Jackson sounds like it flows best to me! We have hyphenated my daughters name and we essentially chose the first name first and went with what sounded best!

cantdecideonsurnamehelppp · 11/06/2021 19:20

@BingBongToTheMoon yes, that’s my worry without the hyphen but even for saying it aloud, it does sound like part of her first name I think. It will have to be his name first in that case, I can see myself getting annoyed if I have to constantly correct people on it not being her first or middle name!

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BingBongToTheMoon · 11/06/2021 19:19

That definitely looks like a middle name.
I know you rejected it, but I would definitely only use my surname, I’m sorry.

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