I've met my first ever double double barrel named child!

[llamajohn]

I wondered when it would happen, when two people with double barrel names have a child.

I met Alice Smith-Jones Williams-Taylor*

*Not real names, but you get the gist ... In fact her surname is actually longer than the above!

Indeed. Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart. Then Annabel Birley before she famously created a vacancy by becoming Annabel Goldsmith.

I vaguely know her. She’s the absolute epitome of a formidable Englishwoman. And had a name to match!

But don't the Spanish kids get the parental side of the surname from each parent?
Isn't that basically the same as taking in a man's surname... ?

I went to school with and worked with Spanish and Portuguese people who have 4 last names.

I've probably met others in between but only know these people have 4 last names because I saw their full name. All just used one last name.

@llamajohn and wait till that child has a baby with another double double barrelled name!! poor baby!!! actually, poor registrar trying to get eight surnames with hyphens in the one line!!!

What dictates which comes first?

It used to be this way but nowadays you can choose which one you pass down and which one goes first.

Traditionally yes, you pass on your first surname which is usually the dad’s. But nowadays you choose the order, so if the mother’s name comes first, the child will end up passing down their maternal name to their own kids too.

The parents choose the order. I am not sure what the law actually says about a parent who goes to register the child on their own, though.

It’s yes, you also use your mums surname so not only your dads (I know it’s your granddads surname but to us it really means my second surname is my mums surname) . It’s also the surname you have since you’re born. It’s part of your identity and the one you’ve grown with. You don’t give it up to take another man’s surnames you have no blood from

So very witty ... Jeez ,you make a light hearted observation and some tosser comes along and calls you names... Nice and friendly.

I do know about other countries and surnames thanks, have worked in an international boarding school and seen all sorts.
I'm just saying I had never met a kid in the UK with a double double-barrelled surname... It's pretty rare I should think.

Parents choose the order. Until not long time ago it was dad - mum. But more families are doing mum - dad. To me, officially you’re both surnames and use both for everything so the order didn’t matter much as I was using both anyway

I think it'd be time to smerge-smush them into:

Hello, my name is Tom Smones-Brite Masson-Lewison.
Or Tom Smite-Mason! Perfect!
Or Tom Smion
Or Tom SJBWMTLH.

Those saying that in Spain they do this - they do, and in other Latin countries too - but when people refer to the family name of the individual, they refer to the first surname (i.e. the paternal surname). And as others have said: when that child then has a child, it's the paternal surname carried forward. The maternal name "dies".

I know someone who has done this. I think it's pretty smart.

I love the fact that in other countries both names are passed down. I volunteer with a Brazilian woman so her name is along the lines of (not actual name) Isaura Luisa Senna Da Silva I have also volunteered with Peruvian and Portuguese women and they also had similar last names along the lines of Carpio Marion and Rocha Sousa (again not real names). Isaura had her maternal name before her paternal but the other two were paternal first.

Why wouldn’t it work? The Spanish and Greeks tend to do this and when they have kids they just choose one name from each double-barrel for their own kids. So every person just has two surnames.

For reasons of diplomacy, my parents gave me a first name, two middle names and a surname, twenty eight letters in total. Those forms where each letter goes in a box simply don’t work.

I’m Spanish and I can say this is not true. I use both my surnames. My maternal ones has died only when I came to the uk because they keep messing it up and I’ve had problems when trying to get loans. But officially I keep using both my surnames.

Good luck on the GP calling in board!

No, absolutely not. I was referring only to double barrel names. It's neither old fashioned or demeaning for families to hand down a surname which doesn't cause confusion & complications. Like it or not in the majority of cases its the fathers name. I doubt it will change.

My maiden name was a double barreled, my DH had a single surname. I kept half my original double barrel, and we double barreled our names together to make our surname.

A double double barrel name is one way to teach young children the alphabet I guess!

You learn it quite quickly 😂 alpha beta Charlie. 😃
just counted. My name + 2 surnames are 26 characters. My dad’s surname only is already 10.

Still is, I work with children, double barrels guarantees you're seeing the roughest family.

Sorry that's very judgey but it is my first thought.

You can drop a middle name. I did.

As long as you are consistent then ensure all your ID matches then no-one cares. (Well except idiots at the passport office who can't read their own rules.) If you change your first or last name then that has to be done officially.

In my case I was pissed that I had more names than my siblings and half-siblings born before and after me. This is why I understood when a couple of friends made sure their children had the same number of first and middle names as their half-siblings.

I agree, not to mention ridiculous. Where does it end?

I only noticed unmarried parents choosing this more recently.