Double barrel names?

[Zara16]

Okay so my partner and I have just got engaged, and immediately I've gone into panic about last names. His is Higgins, and mine is Hattley, so we'll both keep the same initials regardless, but we both want to keep our own names. I know some people do just keep their own, but neither of us could bear to have different names to each other. We've been toying with the idea of a double barrel as a compromise, but can't decide which way round we'd like it. So it would either be 'Higgins-Hattley' or 'Hattley-Higgins', which do you think sounds better?

Our names would either be:
'Zara Higgins-Hattley' or 'Zara Hattley-Higgins'
And
'Jordan Higgins-Hattley' or 'Jordan Hattley-Higgins'

Please help!! What do you think sounds best?

My vote is for Hattley-Higgins

Hattley-Higgins rolls off the tongue better.
BTW it sound a really cool combination. Like some unknown particle (CERN)!

I also think Hattley-Higgins

I like Hattley-Higgins too. Or how about an amalgamation of you surnames to make something different? Hattins? Higgley?

*your

Hattley-Higgins definitely, sounds good!

Hattley-Higgins is my favourite too, do you not think its too long though? Four syllables? I've turned it over in my mind so many times I can't think straight about it!

Hattley - Higgins sounds great, like a foreign diplomat or a spy or something. Definitely one to go for!

Four syllables is absolutely fine. A lot shorter than some!
Some first names are easily three syllables. Keep DCs names to two? Like yours.

Going against the grain here but I'd go for Higgins Hattley.

It all gets a bit mary Poppins otherwise. Or my fair Lady.

DH and I have a double barrelled name and one thing I have found is that the first part of the name is sometimes dropped (by other people/companies etc) in favour of the second half. In our case the second half is my name, so somes get Mr/Mrs My name instead of his name-my name. Works for me

Oh really! I didn't think of people dropping half... In which case I would want them to drop his half now I'm definitely stuck!! Is there a way to make sure people don't drop it do you think? If we consistently use the full name?

I've found school are very good with using full name (they have slipped a couple of times but that's all). It tends to be the bank/customer services/sales people etc. But has happened enough for me to be used to it.

My DH's extended family still address as just his surname. Most of my family get it right! Funny that

But yes always use it fully to get used to it. It took me a while actually. Ours is 3 syllables but 4 definitely isn't too long. May I also suggest googling- in my case ours makes us very uncommon- even though they are pretty standard British surnames seperately together they are the first result in Google with no others coming up from the uk (one family with our name comes up on the internet from the US) with the same surname. Not a problem but I am well aware that the first hit on our surname is my twitter account! So easy to find, IYSWIM.

We both use our own names, but our son has both. It's always been used in its full five-syllable glory in full by pre-school, GP, etc.

I don't quite get the soppiness of not being able to bear to have a different name to your spouse, I must say, but two couples I know have joined their names, but not in the same order. So Mark Smith and Juliet Curry became Mark Smith Curry and Juliet Curry Smith. No hyphens.

I was a bit too at the "can't bear to have different names" thing....

Personal choice is one thing, but there are limits of emotion to invest in this issue, surely