Comments on: about names

By: monkeyfluffer

monkeyfluffer — Sat, 10 May 2008 01:52:45 +0000

Re: legality of names

There’s the case in Sweden with baby Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116

Wiki page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116

By: tamsynx

tamsynx — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:51:22 +0000

@23 CD - Maybe it’s just me then (and I’m not 22, I’m in my late 30’s ;) When I introduce myself (on a person to person basis, not in class) I have to remember to add a last name, usually I just use my first name. In Indonesia they have one name. When my friend registered at school, he had to use his one name as his first name and last name.

By: abarian

abarian — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:52:01 +0000

“We are about to move to Germany, where it is illegal for men to hyphenate their last names.”

I just heard last night that in Germany, once you’ve chosen a baby’s name, you have to register it with - the office of records? - and wait to see if it gets rejected. All sorts of interesting politics going on there, eh?

By: Anomie

Anomie — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:21:09 +0000

Thanks for the repost, Eszter! I really need to get better about checking my comments before I hit send.

By: eszter

eszter — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:36:40 +0000

where it is illegal for men to hyphenate their last names

Who comes up with this crap? I could see some reasoning if it was illegal for all, but to differentiate based on gender? Ugh.

By: eszter

eszter — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:27:33 +0000

Anomie, thanks for that link. (I’m reposting as it didn’t seem to work in your post and I ended up searching for the piece.) I’ve seen articles like this over the years, sad to see little has changed. (I first read about the hurdles men face in such situations in my college Sex and Gender class. There was a piece on this in the edited volume Feminist Frontiers. I wanted to look up author & title info, but I can’t find my copy and it may not have made the cut into the most recent versions of the volume.)

Personally, I’m for people keeping their names, although I do think that if the couple has children figuring out how to name them poses a challenge.

By: demographist

demographist — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:24:13 +0000

My husband really wanted us to have one name for our family, but I refused to just take his last name, because it is boring and common. He agreed that it was only fair for him to change his name, too, and so he had his name officially changed. We experimented with combining the names, but couldn’t come up with anything that didn’t sound silly, so we hyphenated. Our last name is now cumbersome and awkward, but we couldn’t come up with another solution for us all to have the same last name. We both use it professionally and socially. We will leave it up to our children to decide what to do when they marry.

We are about to move to Germany, where it is illegal for men to hyphenate their last names.

By: Anomie

Anomie — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:36:53 +0000

This article on Feministing indicates that name changes are still assumed to be the domain of women.

“California and some 40 other US states provided no place on the marriage licence application, and driving licence, for the groom to choose the bride’s surname.”

They also note a couple who was denied a birth certificate for their child b/c they wanted to give it the mother’s last name, and a 2004 Pennsylvania decision to not allow a child to have a hyphenated last name: apparently, having just your dad’s name is in your best interest.

By: colonel density

colonel density — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:03:01 +0000

Now that nobody is trying to stop you from doing it

Do you really feel that’s how it is? I think there remains tons of pressure on women to change their names. I also don’t think it’s become trivial for men to change their names, but I don’t know of specific recent stories (because I don’t know of any men who’ve tried to change their names).

I find the comment in #20 fascinating from an academic. I figure last name is huge given all of the issues mentioned by OW in the original post. Plus the focus on first names reminds me of some lines in You’ve Got Mail, which I hope won’t come across as offensive, but this was really the first thing to come to mind as I read #20 above:

Kathleen Kelly to Joe Fox: “‘Joe. Just call me Joe.’ As if you were one of those stupid 22-year-old girls with no last name. ‘Hi, I’m Kimberley.’ ‘Hi, I’m Janice.’ What’s wrong with them? Don’t they know you’re supposed to have a last name? It’s like they’re a whole generation of cocktail waitresses.”

Apologies if I’m misunderstanding focus on the first name.

By: olderwoman

olderwoman — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:29:16 +0000

@20 I think you are saying that older women (my generation) equate keeping birth name with feminism more than younger women do. Right? That is my impression, as well. Keeping your name seemed more of a symbol in the 1970s, and that was part of why I did it. Now that nobody is trying to stop you from doing it, its meaning shifts, especially if the man changing his name too is on the table. (Of course, your “older” friend could be a lot younger than I!)