How Not To Act Old

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.

3 Comments

Filed under marriage, names

3 Comments

Mauigirl
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:27 am

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!
Lexi
June 23rd, 2008 at 10:58 pm

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.
Jake
February 19th, 2010 at 5:50 pm

Better yet, don’t get married at all. That’s soooo ’s.

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