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You know what I really hate? Hyphenated last names. They’re long, they’re tedious, and they often sound really pretentious. I totally support a woman’s choice to keep her maiden name. But pick one or the other. Old or new. Not both. —Mrs. One Name
This article appears in Mar 25-31, 2010.
47 Comments
you know what I really hate? When people get hung-up on the stupidest shit like how people choose to identify themselves. It’s none of your business!
I agree with Jennier. Who gives a shit about someone having a hyphenated last name? To be honest, I LOVE hyphenated first and last names! The more unique a name (without going TOO overboard…), the better. I probably feel this way because I have such a generic, typical name though.
I’ve always said that women who kept both names reeked of insecurity – they figure it’s a compromise but all it does is provide a bunch of mismatched, sometimes hilarious hyphenated monikers, i.e. http://linuxnotes.blogspot.com/2007/07/whe… – like OP says, make up your fucking mind.
Mine is keeping her own name and I’m keeping mine, not that its the OB’s business or anything….
I wouldn’t go so far as to say I “hate” it, but I do find it pretty ridiculous. How far do you go? Do you expect your kids to follow in your footsteps and have hyphenated hyphenated last names? “Hello Mr. Smith-Jones-McNeil-Clooney”
haha TTFN that was great.
I personally wouldn’t hyphenate mine, I’m not really into that whole thing.
But if someone else wants to do it I don’t really care, it’s not my business.
I’ll pass your concerns along to Osama Bin-Laden – expect a visit.
I kept my last name AND addes my husband’s name becuase I really had no desire to give up the name I had been using for the first decades of my life. I couldn’t just “change” my name to something ENTIRELY new!
My original last name is a nice name, it sounds good with my husband’s name, and the chances are slim that anyone else in the world will have this combination.
I like it, my husband likes it—so dear OP, what you think about it doesn’t really matter.
Have a lovely day!
The feminists brought about the double last name practice. Likely it makes it confusing for people to remember what name to call them.
I’ve never been a huge fan of the hyphenated names either OP. However I am a huge fan of minding my own fucking business when it relates to things that have no impact on my own life.
I am also not a fan of hyphenated last names…but since i wouldn’t invite such a pretensious ass to anything anyway…it really doesn’t effect me.
What I found out the other day…& i think its pretty neat
IS if you ever meet someone who spells their name ,
!jari etc, the ‘!’ is a clicking sound. Like if you put your tongue on the roof of your mouth & make a clicking sound ( I found that at an African site i was visiting & it explained how to pronounce the name with an exclaimation at the front)
Many people already have email addresses and business cards with their maiden name on them, and coworkers and business contacts who know them as “Louise Maidenname”.
Many women choose to hyphenate because it makes the transition easier for people to figure out who “Louise Marriendname” is if her maiden name is also used.
Personally, I never thought I’d get married, and now that I am, I’m looking forward to changing my name –it’ll fuck up my bill collectors and I can open a whole new (virtually anonymous) Facebook account. HA!
Gidget, I guarentee they’ll find you anyway. but good luck with that!
I really don’t see the big deal. If you want to hyphenate your name, than go for it. Spanish people have two lasts names (although they are not hyphenated). First one from dad and the second one from mom.
That’s true triffid, but when the girls get married, they drop the mother’s last name in favour of the husband’s and add a “de” (of) in the middle.
Which to the feminists must be even worse than changing the name.
i usually categorize woman with hyp. names in the same genre as vanity places you’re a pretentious beeatch until proven otherwise ; sorry that’s just how i feel .
ahem vanity plates 🙂
Yeah, jennier, I know, but I can dream. LOL.
Actually, until I switched careers, I was considering hyphenating because clients knew me by my maiden name, and since I wanted to take about-to-be hubby’s name, I figured it would be an easier transition.
But the two names don’t work together, so I’m glad I don’t feel that I “have to” anymore. Maybe I’ll make hubby take MY last name, seeing as how my Dad didn’t have any sons… 😉
the most pretentious people who use those fucking stupid hyphens are black. don’t get me wrong here,i mean as in african canadian, african american, what the fuck ever. the same also goes for any others that come to one country or another to live, and be a citizen. if i had to adopt this bullshit, i would be, acadian-french-german-dutch-english. see how fucking stupid that looks. you are either one or the other. if you come to this country to live, pas citizenship, you ARE A CANADIAN,FUCKING PERIOD. but when is enough, enough, oh no, you say you have to have your individuality, okay, do so. but drop all this hyphenated crap, or get the fuck out. go ahead, lambsate me, i know that in my own mind, my opinion is golden, and as such, has to be respected as just that, the same as all other opinions here, or this site is of no use to anyone.
Actually Gidget I have a friend who did that. It is actually happening more often.
I just really hate those French places with all those god damn hyphens in them. I work at a place where I am typing addresses most of the time. When I come across a French place, I don’t bother with putting all the hypens, although putting a space between them is the same amount of keys I know, but I just hate how this looks: SAINTE-MARIE-DE-LAC-DE-KENT-SUR-FUCK-OFF.
wow.
lets try to stay on topic LS.
lets try. sure you can post whatever you want.
but if it ain’t valid. it aint worth shit.
Yeah, but PK, you have to admit, “SAINT-LOUIS-DE-HA-HA” is just giggly-making.
Technically, I legally have three last names BEFORE I’m married, it has nothing to do with pretension, just adoption. Although I came by them through no fault of my own, I choose to only use the one. (I have carpal tunnel). 🙂
Besides, the three of them are from different cultures, and if I used them hyphenated, people using my full name would sound like a cat yakking up a really large furball.
Jennier and Cranky – isn’t this what the LTWWB board is for? Posting about inane, trivial things that irritate us?
(For what it’s worth, I don’t particularly like hyphenated names either, which is why I kept my maiden name.)
Whoops – I meant melectric – you profile pics of ginger cats all look the same to me. LOL
The things some people find annoying are pretty funny.
Absolutely Oceanlady. I like that I can take a break from work – where I have to worry about real issues – and have a laugh over trivial things that bug people. Like hyphenated names!
Amen Rubyjane!!
Hyphenated names are insecure names.
Ladies, you need to jump into marriage with both feet.
Just like love. It doesn’t work unless you fully invest.
If not for you:
I would agree, but by the same token, I don’t think the decision of a professional person to want to ensure that their clients, contacts, and coworkers can figure out who they are has anything to do with their level of commitment.
Besides, what if your husband’s last name is Jingleheimerschmidt?
One’s name after marriage is a matter of personal choice. None of anyone else’s business really. Why should anyone else care how someone chooses to identify themselves. There must be better things to focus one’s attention to. Like your own life instead of someone else’s.
“”Why should anyone else care how someone chooses to identify themselves.””
I used to tell my mom “I don’t CARE what I wear to church”
And her reply was “well, we’re the ones gotta look at ya”
And this parable applies here, OL…it very much matters if people choose to make long and stupid names…we’re the ones that have to write them down over the phone, type the into emails and so on…and so, as satisfying as you may have found it to win snark of the day with THIS little gem:
“”Like your own life instead of wahhhhh!!…”
The point remains that hyphenated names are a silly trend imported from the chattering classes of the UK, and I’m sad that you have such a silly one…
signed,
Bob Loblaw
Funny…I’m not sad that I don’t have a hyphenated name, silly or otherwise.
Of course, there’s George Carlin’s take on it:
Another crime against society! Hyphenated names!
Hey lady! Pick a fucking name! Will you, please?
Pick a fucking name!
“Hi, I’m Emily Geracore-Fortesque!”
“Hi, I’m George Jerk-me-off-Fuck-you-too!”
kamen, i am on topic, or did you not notice it was about any hyphenated name, or nationality, for that matter. but i don’t expect you to understand a freedom of speech, or rights context.
i may have missed it, but did anyone think about children who have been given hyphenated names by their parents?
my mom kept her last name, but i have both my parents names. so people calling hyphenated names ‘pretentious’ and ‘insecure’ should maybe mind their own business, or at least think a little about what they’re saying. unless they’re okay with sounding just as obnoxious and ‘pretentious’ as hyphenated names.
100% agree with this. Hyphenated last names drive me nuts. I have enough trouble remembering two names, without adding a fucking hyphen.
This will not be an option for the girl I marry. She either keeps her name or takes mine.
LS are you off your meds? The only problem with hyphenated names is when they start on the left sleeve on a hockey jersey and have to finish on the right.
go habs go
i had a prof at acadia who married another prof and he took her last name at the end of his and she took his at the end of hers. It was adorable.
Not hypenated, but a great name nonetheless: Alexis Morrell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan
Well guys, why don’t you change your last name to your wife’s maiden name? What makes his name so special that it automatically gets picked?
Seems pretty sad that if a woman wants to keep her own name, while doing something nice for her man by taking his as well, shes a feminist and pretentious and horrible, but since men don’t ever have to face the problem, they can just say whatever they want.
If it’s really that big of a problem to hyphenate, then newlyweds should have to pick one of the two possible last names out of a hat and go with that one.
Is this all you have to complain about? Wow, you must have a cushy life, or maybe you need to get a life.
Actually, if my options were she hyphenates or I take her name, I’d pick option 2.
In Quebec, the name you’re born with is your name for life. They changed policy and legislation about 15 years ago.
As someone has mentioned above, some people do not choose to have hyphenated names; they are born into them. Calling them ‘pretentious’ and ‘insecure’ is offensive.
I’m pretty late to this thread, but it reminded me of a comment on a radio show I heard. They were discussing whether or a not a woman should take the man’s name when she gets married and the guy said:
“why not? she already has a man’s name…her father’s. The real decision is do you want to take the name of the man who loves you or keep the name of the man who never loved you enough?”