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!

Silly and pretentious.🙄

I don't think you get the point.
People double/triple whatever barrel because they want their names to live on.
Your second paragraph - exactly. They still choose one ending up with the other disappearing.
Not sure if the quadruple barrelled parents actually like their names - maybe they, like their parents, just couldn't agree. And still, doubt their kids and going to 8 barrell (?) their children's names.

Mathematically speaking it can't continue forever. I know some families where one parent was very hurt that the child didn't choose their surname to pass on to grandchildren. so much drama.

Anyway, people can name their kids what they like. Other people are also free to think whatever they like about said names. As long as they don't say it to anybody's face

Anyone who has a problem with someone else's name needs to get over it

Just wait for the next generation.

The entire population of Spanish speaking countries manage just fine with everyone being double barrelled. The child takes one name each from mother and father. It does my head in when people claim this is some kind of insoluble problem when the whole Spanish speaking world manages just fine.

My foster daughter has a double-barrelled first and last name as well as a middle name.

Well that won’t fit on an exercise book!

@MsGoodenough but these people haven’t followed the Spanish way.

Well of course that wasn’t their real name, that would be something more like Farquharson-Smythe Cavendish-Hornblower.

If I may add something though, when Spanish people are given their surnames, traditionally it’s the dad’s first and the second surname a child is given is the mum’s.
Nowadays it’s possible to put the mum’s first and dad’s second.

As an example for illustration purposes:

María Antonia Gutiérrez Moreno

María is the first name

Antonia is her second name, or middle name in the UK.

She could use María, or Antonia or MariAntonia as her preferred name to be called. No need for hyphen or otherwise.

She could also have a nickname that are traditionally derived from those names: Toñi, Tonina, Mari, MariToñi and so forth…

Gutiérrez would be her first surname which traditionally would be her dad’s first surname
(for illustration purposes her dad is call Mario Gutiérrez Sancho)

Moreno is her mum’s first surname, that becomes the child’s second surname. Her mum is called Patricia Moreno Castro.

So, if you are a female, following tradition, the child’s mother surname heritage is lost. If on the other hand it would be a boy, the dad’s surname would pass on the next generation.

I hope I didn’t over complicate my explanation but if you have questions let me know. And sorry it doesn’t reply to OP’s post.

My youngest goes to school with a girl who has a hyphenated first name and double barrelled surname. The mother is hard work. I saw the class teacher and some other mums being ripped a new one at parents evening for not addressing her daughter correctly. To say both first names as she insists (and corrects if you don’t) is a ruddy mouthful and they don’t flow or even go. It’s extremely precious and ridiculous.
When I was a nipper if you had a double barrelled surname we used to get told the parents were too lazy to get married so the kid had both names. It was a blatant sign your parents didn’t tie the knot and in a lot of cases true.

Well well - double barrelled is bad enough (pretentious and chavvy for the most part), but double double barrelled is just so cruel to a child. I was at school with a girl (40 years ago) who had a double barrelled Christian name and and double barrelled surname. Poor girl, her family were very ‘try hard’ and dreadful social climbers. The only double names in our school that were considered ok were those that didn’t have a hyphen and were well known old Scottish surnames.

The only ones I know of in my sons school are children whose parents aren’t married (not that that’s a problem), and they are always very boring names so it’s almost like they are trying to make their children’s names sound more exciting but end up with “smith-williams” or “boring-dullby”

It's a very British thing (other countries too, I know) to take on your husbands surname and not pass yours on to your children.
I'm half Spanish and every one in Spain has 2 surnames. Not even double barreled it's NAME, SURNAME 1, SURNAME 2.
You take your dad's first surname as your first and your mum's first surname as your second.
It's still the dads surname that survives to the next generation but the mum's surname still passes on to her children.
I have 2 surnames.

It has a ring to it!

I have come across a few this year (school admissions). I had a child last year with six forenames & three surnames. Poor kid.

The number of children who have 'preferred' forenames that are completely different from their legal name is also increasing. Causes a lot of confusion.

What is pretentious are the English gentry who have triple-barrelled names

Not just English. MIL is mainland European minor aristocracy and she has a triple barrelled surname, two names of which have prefixes (think De Burgh, von Trapp type thing). She has three Christian names, one of which is also double barrelled. So nine words and 53 letters. Try getting all that on a form.

The desperation and insecurity of those criticising the double barrelling are doing so to try and differentiate themselves as middle class. Ironically it just comes across as very pretentious. If you were secure in your self and your choices you wouldn't take such joy in denigrating the name choices of others.

The thread isn't about double barrelling though. It is about quadruple barrelling.

Likely she'd use, in your example, Alice Smith or Taylor and drop the rest. Why wouldn't you?! Way too long. Poor child