Friday, June 20th, 2008...12:19 pm
#35: De-hyphenate Your Name
There was a brief moment when name-hyphenization seemed like the answer to all marital-equality issues. A moment when two people might have gotten married and become Pamela and Richard Redmond-Satran. (Not that we ever did that: My husband declined to take the Redmond, so I just dragged both names behind me like a big fat butt, without the hyphen connecting them.)
But back to you: The whole hyphen thing seemed like a good idea for about a minute and a half, until the jokes started about what would happen when Gabriella Redmond-Satran (not one of our real children) married Marmaduke Martini-O’Flaherty. Would their child be called Maximilian Redmond-Satran-Martini-O’Flaherty?
And then there was the question of whose name went first, and whether the husband as well as the wife would adopt the hyphenization, until the notion just collapsed. Before that, however, several hundred people got married and hyphenated their names. All those people are now over the age of 50. Or just sound like it.
Now that you mention it, that is so over! Glad I never did that. I couldn’t wait to get rid of my name; I was 32 when I got married so I was ready!
Just keep your own name. I will keep mine when I eventually get married b/c (and I am serious) I’ve worked on making my name market me well when people Google me, and I don’t want to start over again with that.
Better yet, don’t get married at all. That’s soooo ‘s.
I have had a hyphenated name for 35 years. I am proud of it. We hyphenated our names as a symbol of our equality and how we were “new” people when we married. Our 3 adult children have our name.
In our marriage we WERE equal. After 40 years of living together he is still the person I admire most. His idea to hyphenate our names was a good one. I am willing to look old to bear our name.
Hyphenating has several advantages, professionally and personally, but moreover is a personal decision with an even more personal basis; that’s copacetic. However, DON’T do it to your kids! Do not give them your hyphenated name!