Just got married. How do we double barrel our names?

heartbreak_star

I have a double-barreled surname, which I adore and will not give up when/if I am married. I will not be my husband's possession, I refuse to merge into his identity, and my OH is perfectly aware of this.

With regards to what-happens-with-children etc, I asked this as a teenager. Let's use the example name of Jane Brown-Smith, with Smith being my father's name, and Brown being my mother's name (only child, didn't want to lose her name). My parents also both use the Brown-Smith name.

I can use the name Miss Brown-Smith, but occasionally use Miss Smith or Miss B-Smith for quickness.

Any children I have now would be Brown-Smiths.

If I married a man with the surname Jones and wanted to stay a Ms/Mrs Brown-Smith, I would be perfectly entitled to. If we wished to link names, I could be a Mrs Jones Brown-Smith, a Mrs Brown Jones-Smith, or a Mrs Smith Brown-Jones using one of the names as middle names, or simply link the surnames and lose the middle names.

Actual combining order is determined usually by what sounds better, though the tradition is apparently to have the woman's maiden name first.

Hope this made sense, though it probably doesn't!

HBS x

FATBALLZ

Wyre wrote: »

Heh, I was brough up with a double barrelled surname as my Mum was the last of her family and didn't want to lose the name but wanted to show she was married to my Dad. Dad didn't alter his name, but we all took the double barrelled name.

When finally getting married I wanted to keep my original name and show I am married. There are times when I just use Mrs X if Mrs X Y-Y is awkward for some reason (putting the cat in the cattery for instance). All our kids have my maiden name as they born prior to our marriage.

I see, so it is all borne out of a misconception that anyone outside the immediate family actually cares about the meaning of the double barrelled name.

heartbreak_star

Pretty much!

HBS x

lowlitmemory

I work for a university and if you were our student we wouldn't just accept your say-so that you'd changed name. We wouldn't accept a marriage cert as proof of name change to double-barrelled either, only as proof that Miss X marrying Mr Y is now Mrs Y. If a student presented a passport as Ms XY and her qualification cert as Ms X, plus a marriage cert to Mr Y, then no dice, she'd need a deed poll cert to prove that the qualification cert and passport belonged to the same person.

Legally you can use whatever name you like but honestly, I'd get a deed poll cert for each of you to make your life easier, especially if you are not planning to change passport or driver's licence straightaway. Different institutions will have different 'house rules', since there's no particular "law" on your name.

Person_one

lowlitmemory wrote: »

I work for a university and if you were our student we wouldn't just accept your say-so that you'd changed name. We wouldn't accept a marriage cert as proof of name change to double-barrelled either, only as proof that Miss X marrying Mr Y is now Mrs Y. If a student presented a passport as Ms XY and her qualification cert as Ms X, plus a marriage cert to Mr Y, then no dice, she'd need a deed poll cert to prove that the qualification cert and passport belonged to the same person.

Which university is that? Does it run any courses on gender studies?

claire16c

lowlitmemory wrote: »

We wouldn't accept a marriage cert as proof of name change to double-barrelled either, only as proof that Miss X marrying Mr Y is now Mrs Y.

That sounds like a load of carp to me. I dont believe you. Getting a deedpoll wouldnt show anything different to the marriage certificate. And because you would then actually be making up a person's name yourself, rather than using what the person would be telling you and the real name :rotfl:

pleasedelete

jason1231972 wrote: »

I think I get what McKneff means. Double-barrelled surnames are traditionally the reserve of the upper classes/aristocracy.

Haha. You are joking? Quite the opposite. Lots more Chardonnays than Camillas with double barrelled surnames.

lowlitmemory

Person_one wrote: »

Which university is that? Does it run any courses on gender studies?

No it doesn't, it's a medical school. It's just the policy. To be honest, if you got me, I'd probably accept the marriage cert. If you got my manager though, she'd follow the policy.

Look, I'm not saying I agree with it, I'm saying it happens and so if you want to double-barrel you may be best off getting a deed poll done to make YOUR life easier.

lowlitmemory

claire16c wrote: »

That sounds like a load of carp to me. I dont believe you. Getting a deedpoll wouldnt show anything different to the marriage certificate. And because you would then actually be making up a person's name yourself, rather than using what the person would be telling you and the real name :rotfl:

Why don't you believe me? It's what I do day-in, day-out. Like I say, that's the policy we've been told to use. The marriage cert is used as proof that a woman has changed her name to her husband's. If she keeps her name, no need to show the cert. If she has passport and qualification certs in the same name then there's no problem either. It's only if she has qualifications in one name and photo ID in the other, that we need a paper link to tie both names together. We can't produce 'her word for it' when we're asked for an audit trail can we?

ETA: I'm not arguing in favour of this policy, can I make that clear. I don't know enough about why it's in place. I am saying, it happens, there ARE places that WON'T accept a marriage cert as proof of going double-barrelled and so you may be better off just covering all bases!

kno

In Scotland the deed poll doesn't apply, as far as I know therefore lowlitmemory your argument that in order to show you have changed your name from a previously known one is ludicrous.

If Ms. X wants to call herself Ms. X Y or Ms. X-Y then she should be respected.