Agreed it is just a name, and there are bigger things in life, but the sense of attachment to a name is important to some people, myself included.
Would you take your wife's name?
- Thread starter dowie
- Start date
Agreed it is just a name, and there are bigger things in life, but the sense of attachment to a name is important to some people, myself included.
Associate
- Joined
- 28 Nov 2015
- Posts
- 1,521
- Location
- Tewkesbury, UK
OH is quite happy to take my name, I wouldn't want to change mine.
Actually, its unfair of me to say 'who cares'. I wasn't going to change my name as I cared about keeping my name the same! I didn't have a particularly strong opinion about changing someone else's name!
+1
No - my wife's maiden name is one of the most common surnames in the English-speaking world, whereas there are 3 eligible men in the UK capable of furthering the family name. If the balance was different then I'd certainly be happy to consider it, but I'm keen to keep the family name alive. I haven't necessarily pushed for her to change her surname - we got married last year - and of course she's entitled to call herself what she wants, but it's important to me for any kids that we have to take my surname.
We have different surnames. She had kids from a previous relationship and had just about managed to get her kids names changed to hers (once the kids were old enough to agree to it). So now the wife and kids have her name and i have mine.
Doesn't really bother any of us.
Doesn't really bother any of us.
Soldato
- Joined
- 11 Sep 2013
- Posts
- 12,633
Depends greatly on the name.
My wife had a pretty decent and uncommon maiden name, with a respectable history that clearly had some strong lineage behind it. It's also a very Viking kind of name, so rather cool. I'd have had no problem taking that name, had my own not been better.
Mine is a bit weirder, but carries an even stronger Anglo-Saxon lineage and a more direct link to our family's ancestry. The wife is also quite old-fashioned, so she took my name and now suffers frequent reminders that her Viking lot were booted out by my lot!
My wife had a pretty decent and uncommon maiden name, with a respectable history that clearly had some strong lineage behind it. It's also a very Viking kind of name, so rather cool. I'd have had no problem taking that name, had my own not been better.
Mine is a bit weirder, but carries an even stronger Anglo-Saxon lineage and a more direct link to our family's ancestry. The wife is also quite old-fashioned, so she took my name and now suffers frequent reminders that her Viking lot were booted out by my lot!
Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Jun 2012
- Posts
- 9,898
- Location
- South Wales
Whether the answer is yes or no. We can all agree that double barrelled names are wrong.
I think both should change and be a combination between the two. Mine would end up Marder after my favourite German WW2 tank destroyer.
I think both should change and be a combination between the two. Mine would end up Marder after my favourite German WW2 tank destroyer.
Thats a bit of a strong (and rather controversial) view! What is the reason for not wanting someone making such a decision to get anything in a divorce?
Haha some interesting opinions in here, should send the missus over for a read! What are peoples views on double barreling or combining names? My OH has pitched the following format: [name1 start][name2 end] so like Killington + Turner = Killinger?! or Turnington.... Seems ridiculous to me.
I'd probably be OK with it for kids if it was something she felt really strongly about but I'd not change my own and if she wanted to keep her own then so be it - I've got a single surname and the current potential wife has a single surname too. Though people generally aren't going to triple or quadruple barrel their surname so a decision re: dropping a name probably needs to be made by the kids when they marry.
I think it's generally reasonable although it will yield ridiculous results sometimes. Compound words have long been common in names in many places, including Britain, and cumbersome combinations generally get smoothed out into something more usable. It's a workable method. It's generally been used for the names of places and things rather than families, but it could be used for the names of families.
Double barreling is silly. It's only a couple of generations to an impractical number of family names and only 19 generations to over a million family names per person. It's like the classic fable of grains of rice on a chessboard - when you double at each step the numbers quickly become vast.