Double barrelled surnames

[RedHelenB]

Those of you with them, Just wondering what would your children do if they met someone with a double barrelled surname too.

No idea. I’m sure they’ll tell me if and when they do.

Up to them but I‘m assuming they will do what my wife did and pick one to pass on.

It’s up to them really! Either take on the other persons, they take on ours or they pick a combination or just drop to a single surname.

Where I’m from, we have double-barrelled names. For example
If my mum was Gomez-Garcia
My dad was Lopez-Fernandez
I would be Lottie Lopez-Gomez

If I, Lopez-Gomez married a man named Abrantes-Alegre, our children would be
Abrantes-Lopez

It does get a bit complicated but you just carry one name forward

Probably pick one to combine, if they haven’t already dropped one.

DH’s surname is v complicated so I’d be pretty surprised if they both retained his.

I would be slightly disappointed if they chose to change their name entirely on marriage, but I’d appreciate that’s their decision to make.

No idea, up to them.
Take their wives’ names, use one half and double barrel, make up a new blended one, make up a new one from scratch....

My children have double barrelled surnames Eldest is married and her wife has take 'our' name through choice (she wasn't keen on her own plus mt DD1 is a doctor and it was more of a pain to change hers)
Next one down is planning an interesting mix of his and hers.
No 3 is with someone with a slightly funny name so is going to keep half of hers and tack on his!

Anything goes!

I have 2 surnames from birth. So does my husband (different ones!). Our child has one of each of our surnames (my mother’s and his fathers)

I quite like the idea of blended surnames. I think it should be the norm anyway instead of the woman abandoning her family name to become Mrs Somebody-else.

If we'd done blended names we'd now be the Coopwick family which I think sounds nice. Like something from a Dickens novel.

(I know it wouldn't work for everyone though. There would probably be some very unfortunate combinations.)

Obviously neither of us wanted to change our name when we married!

So, given these answers, essentially one of the ancestors name is eventually dropped anyway , it just takes an extra generation to do it.

Was this thread supposed to be a “gotcha”, OP?

I had one (which went back many generations on my Dads side). I loved getting rid of it! I always hated having a double barrelled surname - it was impossible to fit on forms & made people think you must be posh (although I imagine less so these days where everyone is making them up, that would have been better!).

I’ve always thought lumbering your child with a double barrelled surname, on purpose, is a bit short sighted - but I based that on the assumption that the people making the name up expected it to last..

However, now I get that that isn’t the point - couples changing their names and giving their children that ‘new’ name know full well will more than likely end up being changed again & lost forever when that child grows up & meets their own partner & they will make up another name, meaning every new made up name will just be for one generation anyway & the concept of a ‘family name’ carrying on for generations will cease to exist. As long as parents don’t get arsey when it is ‘their’ sides name that goes, or the whole name is ditched altogether then it’s no issue really.

Given that the history of family names were based entirely on continuing a name only on the male line (which doesn’t make much sense in a modern world anyway) then maybe this trend is not a bad thing after all?

They'll do whatever they choose. Not hard really is it?

Just wondering what would your children do if they met someone with a double barrelled surname too.

I presume they'd bring them home for tea?

Why can't they just keep it?

Whatever he and his partner want to do

We've done this, recently, why is MN discussing it again?

Because @AtiaoftheJulii, if they get married, their surname could then be Mrs Robinson-Wilkinson-Harrison-Webster. Then, if that child married a similar, they'd have an 8-barrelled name. And so on.

“if they get married, their surname could then be Mrs Robinson-Wilkinson-Harrison-Webster. Then, if that child married a similar, they'd have an 8-barrelled name. And so on.”

You don’t really think this, do you?

Those of you with them, Just wondering what would your children do if they met someone with a double barrelled surname too.

Whatever they want. It's their name, they own it, they decide what they do with it. Take a partners name, double barrel parts of it, chop it in half, whatever.

My neighbours are Mr and Mrs Foursyllable-Fivesyllable. As the kids grew up they decided to be 3x Fivesyllable and one Foursyllable. Two of the Fivesyllables have acquired a one-syllable hyphenation upon marriage so the children are double-barrelled again, the other two have stayed with their single name - not sure about the children.

My children don’t have the same surname as me. I assume if they get married, they will keep the surname they already have.

If we combined we’d be the Dicksling family

@arethereanleftatall, yes one or both of the names will eventually be lost, that's always going to be the case when people have children. My husband and I chose to double barrel because we didn't share the assumption that my name should automatically be the one to go. However our children decide to approach the decision will be entirely up to them. I hope I can be as supportive of their choice as my parents were, regardless of my own opinions!