names, again
Hey, back on the topic of naming that Georgia raised (http://www.livejournal.com/community/nerd_words/6871.html) -- what surname(s), if any, would you give your children if you were to have any? I feel like there are problems with all the options I can think of -- please tell me if you have any other ideas.
x. both -- This is most people's first response but I think this only works for two generations, maximum, due to the exponential increase in the number of surnames. Two is pleasant, four is awkward but perhaps bearable, eight is just ridiculous. The Spanish tradition is to have the mother's paternal surname as the first surname, and the father's paternal surname as the second (so it's still patrilineal but both parents are identifiable). So would you expect the next generation to drop one of the names? Which one? Would you be offended if your kid didn't want your name? What order would you put them in? And if this is a feminist thing, is there any point when the original surnames were patrilineal anyway?
x. just one (father's, mother's, whichever sounds better) -- Would you and your partner both have that surname yourselves? If not, wouldn't the parent without their surname as part of the kid's feel awkward being unidentifiable as eir parent by the surname? If so, who's lost their birth surname, and would that offend eir parents?
x. just one as the surname, the other as the middle name -- Which would go where?
x. one parent's given name as the child's first name, and the other parent's surname -- Again, which where? Would it be on gender lines? This only works for one or two kids, unless you have a lot of middle names.
x. a hybrid surname (eg. Smith + Lee = Smee) -- Doesn't that sound stupid?
x. none at all, or a letter, country/city name, etc (eg. Malcolm X, Alice Melbourne) -- Would that be awkward for the child? Wouldn't it be nice to be identifiable as the child's parents by name alone?
x. have an even number of kids and alternating -- Wouldn't that be awkward for the kids having to explain that they're full siblings but with different surnames? What if you don't manage an even number? What order?
x. no surname, and letting the kid choose once an appropriate age -- How old?
I like the city name idea best, or something sweet and invented like "Lovechild", but I would also want my child to have a name that was identifiably related to mine and the other parent's. It's difficult, eh?
For the record, I got married recently and remained Ms Juliana Qian. I'm thinking I should drop the Ms too, because my gender should be as irrelevant as my marital status. My husband (ooh, isn't that novel) kept his birth name as well. We considered hyphenating but he already has two surnames, and my first name is four syllables already, and if I were to take his two I'd want to add my mother's birth surname too, so I'd end up "Juliana Huang-Qian-Campbell-Type". A mouthful. Swapping wasn't really considered; I'd feel like I was pretending to be someone else. A hybrid like "Qipe" sounds stupid.
x. both -- This is most people's first response but I think this only works for two generations, maximum, due to the exponential increase in the number of surnames. Two is pleasant, four is awkward but perhaps bearable, eight is just ridiculous. The Spanish tradition is to have the mother's paternal surname as the first surname, and the father's paternal surname as the second (so it's still patrilineal but both parents are identifiable). So would you expect the next generation to drop one of the names? Which one? Would you be offended if your kid didn't want your name? What order would you put them in? And if this is a feminist thing, is there any point when the original surnames were patrilineal anyway?
x. just one (father's, mother's, whichever sounds better) -- Would you and your partner both have that surname yourselves? If not, wouldn't the parent without their surname as part of the kid's feel awkward being unidentifiable as eir parent by the surname? If so, who's lost their birth surname, and would that offend eir parents?
x. just one as the surname, the other as the middle name -- Which would go where?
x. one parent's given name as the child's first name, and the other parent's surname -- Again, which where? Would it be on gender lines? This only works for one or two kids, unless you have a lot of middle names.
x. a hybrid surname (eg. Smith + Lee = Smee) -- Doesn't that sound stupid?
x. none at all, or a letter, country/city name, etc (eg. Malcolm X, Alice Melbourne) -- Would that be awkward for the child? Wouldn't it be nice to be identifiable as the child's parents by name alone?
x. have an even number of kids and alternating -- Wouldn't that be awkward for the kids having to explain that they're full siblings but with different surnames? What if you don't manage an even number? What order?
x. no surname, and letting the kid choose once an appropriate age -- How old?
I like the city name idea best, or something sweet and invented like "Lovechild", but I would also want my child to have a name that was identifiably related to mine and the other parent's. It's difficult, eh?
For the record, I got married recently and remained Ms Juliana Qian. I'm thinking I should drop the Ms too, because my gender should be as irrelevant as my marital status. My husband (ooh, isn't that novel) kept his birth name as well. We considered hyphenating but he already has two surnames, and my first name is four syllables already, and if I were to take his two I'd want to add my mother's birth surname too, so I'd end up "Juliana Huang-Qian-Campbell-Type". A mouthful. Swapping wasn't really considered; I'd feel like I was pretending to be someone else. A hybrid like "Qipe" sounds stupid.