Sustainable Nomenclature

[trinityvixen]

What could we do about the marriage practice of changing one spouse's last name (usually the wife's) to the other's that would make the practice a) entirely gender-independent and b) practical for multiple generations?

The best I can figure is that both partners have to change their name in some fashion. Either they would do it upon marrying--John Doe and Jane Smith would pick or be given third, new name, say "Brown"--or they would keep their names but give any children a new one.

That would certainly fulfill requirement a), but I'm still not sure that it's an attractive solution to the problem of b). Unless the parents took the new name and passed that on, having children with a different name from the parents is awkward and inelegant.

What do you all think?

Oh, and please, bear in mind that issues of being able to track genealogy are lesser concerns to me. We live in an age with adequate resources for tracking down that sort of information if you want to build family trees. I don't think "being able to trace/link back to our ancestors" is an effective argument against adopting a new system of nomenclature. Issues of how couples would choose new names are fair game though. I imagine we'd get plenty of crank names as the internet generations get married, to say nothing about the few folk who would expose their ignorance and/or bigotry by appropriating names from cultures not their own (or enhancing their link to diluted bloodlines with usurpation of old names).

Comments

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

On the marriage name change forms, it is suggested that a couple could combine their names into something new and both take that name. Usually, it is a hybrid of the two names.

I must say, though, that I have known plenty of people, male and female, who were happy to take their partner's name because they had a negative association with their own family name.

Though it is getting more common for people to keep their birth names, it is still easier to have a family with the same last name when there are children. The amount of paperwork that was easier to fill out yesterday because I could just check "same last name" is amazing...plus, my maiden name is cursed. As soon as it was entered into the system, the computer crashed and locked the woman at the registration desk out of the network.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It's a shame, though, that we make a decision about how to identify ourselves because we loathe other people. I would rather it be an affirmation rather than a refutation, personally.