Married - changing surname

maman

maman wrote: »

Slightly off topic but I've noticed a big increase in the number of people in the media with double barrelled surnames lately. It seems especially prevalent with footballers and athletes. I'm assuming because their parents are unmarried and they want to acknowledge both of them. I wonder what it says on their birth certificates?

lika_86 wrote: »

Why make that assumption? Why not assume their parents are married and they want to acknowledge both? I work with someone, let's call him Mr A who married Miss B, Miss B then became Mrs B-A and their children also took B-A as a surname. I imagine it will only become more common as women reject the assumption that they will take their husband's name.

I assume that their birth certificates reflect their name. Why wouldn't they?

Sorry, didn't mean to cause offence, it was just an observation.:)


DH and I were talking about it last night. Historically, wealthy people double barrelled their surnames usually because they didn't want the wife's name to die out. Sometimes a man would take his wife's name for that reason. Jane Austen's brother even agreed to change his surname completely to inherit from a wealthy, childless relative.


You could be right that the footballers and athletes have always been double barrelled from birth. I just wondered as I'd not noticed it as a trend in schools.


Interestingly, some footballers (Dele Alli for example) have dropped their surname completely from their shirts to disown their parents.

Mojisola

TonyMMM wrote: »

Double barrelling is fine, but can cause issues later on ...

I have relatives in a mainland European country where the couples join their surnames on marriage - traditionally Mr X and Miss Y will become Mr and Mrs X-Y. The family are generally referred to as Family X-Y.

The children take just one surname, traditionally the father's but more recently, it's sometimes the father's, sometimes the mother's and sometimes the sons take the father's and the daughters take the mother's family name - people decide for themselves.