There may have been a legitimate reason for it at one time to indicate that the mother's family was important in its own right, or even a legal reason, but IMHO today it's pure snobbery.

You sometimes find the same thing when the names are not hyphenated. For example the scholar D.A. Shackleton Bailey is always referred to as that rather than Prof. D.A.S. Bailey. Makes him difficult to find in an index!

Hab-Tom, I completely agree with you! King_Fisher

Well, we don't have a choice, it's the parents' fault. ;) I have a hyphenated surname, the name has been hyphenated for at least 4 generations so it's not a deliberate choice on my part.

Here in Quebec, hyphenated names are very common, as women don't (and can't) change their name when they marry and the children are often given both names for equality's sake. Hyphenated first names are more common in French than English too, so sometimes you get people with names composed of four or five words!

My wife hyphenated not because of snobbery but because of her Latin American heritage. It doesn't bother me one bit.

These women who insist on hyphenating their maiden name to their married name haven't thought it through. In a few generations the names will be so long they won't fit on your credit card. :~}

A "double-barreled" name always used to indicate that some time in the past a male ancestor was illegitimate (conceived outside of marriage). Apparently in those days the child would not be eligible for the full father's name so the mother's name would be added on the back. My dad always said that a hyphenated name show that you are descended from a long line of bas**rds.

Some hyphenated names sound ridiculous, I recall a passage from that fantastic book "the Henry Root Letters" (spoof letters written to real people and their replies) where Root is writing to the Brigade of guards. He sends his letter to a "Colonel Wildbore-Smith" (sic) with the comment "I am writing to you rather than your colleague Jones because you have the more sensible name".

[edited by: Old_Honky at 3:18 pm (utc) on Nov. 23, 2007]

It can be a useful way of maintaining the connection with a desirable maiden name. Not only did Irene Joliot-Curie double-barrel her name, her husband did as well. I am sure do not need to say who her parents were.

What would happen if Miss Masters weds Mr. Bates :)

I have two friends that have done this, shes a right on bra burning feminist (when it suits) and I get the impression she thinks it means she keeps her identity.

Shes happy and its given me a few laughs putting the surnames around the wrong way on Christmas cards etc.... Which is very annoying im told ;)

Cant see the point myself, makes you seem like a social climber

Irene Joliot-Curie

She's saying "look at me I may not have achieved much but I had famous parents"

I find it quite pathetic. Vicarious importance for wannabees.

I can understand the doubling of surnames. It is still common in many parts of the world to specify both parents in a child's name. If a woman wanted simply to retain her maiden name (OK her paternal parent's surname but you get my meaning) that's fine. If she wants to hyphenate to show she hooked a husband that's fine too.

Just because we no longer expect Andersson to actually be Ander's son doesn't mean that the extremely daunting Reykjavik phone book should meet our standards of naming.

HOWEVER:

Could you silly Brits please get over that uppercrusty lispy slurring that turned Cholmondely into Chumly, Featherstonehaugh into Fanshaw, St. John into Sin Jin...? I have mispronounced enough names to keep me in embarrassment for the rest of my life.

Another name oddity are a very few family names that are properly written with the first letter always in lower case: ie Robert Q. ffrench. (they are often double F's)

Had something to do with an ancestor who died in battle as I recall.

I remember a gent in the U.S. years ago who petitioned a court to legally change his family name to a number. The judge didn't allow it. I think he wanted 1096, as in Robert Q. 1096.

silly Brits

Absolutely agree, although I assume you mean the English rather the Brits.

But we are not alone in this. Can the Scots please stop pronouncing Menzies as Mingis? Or Daziel as Dee-el?

A lively young damsel named Menzies
Inquired: "Do you know what this thenzies?"
Her aunt, with a gasp,
Replied: "It's a wasp,
And you're holding the end where the stenzies."