Posted on 07/24/2008 10:20:06 AM PDT by beaversmom
I started doing genealogy research in the late 90's/early 00's. Only recently have I taken it back up and registered on Ancestry.com to see what new info has popped up.
In the last day or so I came across a distant relative. They gave me access to their family tree and I noticed they have a little boy born last year. His last name is a combo of both parents. Just for example if one of the parent's name was Jones and one of the parent's name was Smith it would be Smones or Jomith.
I have no information about these people's political ideas, but this seems like one of those cute, trendy things that liberals like to do.
I think this is a terrible idea. When I had my three children I did include my maiden name on their birth certificate to be a third name for them after their middle name, but their last name is their father's last name. I've even seen this done with people from way back --John Anderson and Sarah Smith will have Robert Smith Anderson.
So to use the Smith example on a hypothetical tree, we've got a long line of Smiths going back eons and then some poor little kid shows up and is now a Smones.
It seems like I had read about this idea on FR some time back in some article, but I'm not too happy to see if this actually turns out to be a widespread trend. Now when Smones gets married (if they get married) to a person with a single name or another combo name their kid will have a combo name of two combo names? Joe Smones marries Jane Taybrow (Taylor-Brown), you are now going to combo that?
Another thing that is really bothering me is seeing the trend in England (and in the U.S.) with a lot of cousins' children that are having children and I have no idea who to fill in for the other parent because everyone over there is now a "partner". I'm lucky if I even have a first name for the other parent. Usually if it's a cousin's female kid the man's name is a question mark. I'm not saying that the relative doesn't know who the sperm donor is but because they are not married it's not even mentioned in e-mails announcing the birth. The other parent isn't even an after thought. Sarah Jane had a baby boy (but never any mention of the sperm donor).
Now I have to admit a lot of this is bothering me because it really screws up my family tree, but on the larger scale I think it's really screwing up kids and their ties to the present and past. I like it that I come from a long line of so and sos. I like it that I know my dad.
Well, I'm going to get back to my genealogy research, but I tell you, if I come across that the woman who claims to be man and just gave birth as a "man" is a distant relative to me, I'm leaving that group off the tree!
It’s really nothing new or liberal.
Patronymic surnames have been around for awhile, along with place names and occupation names.
This reminds me of something my half step neighbor in law used to say, however, on second thought it’s not that important.
I fear the connubial union of a Mr. Ash with a Ms. Thole.
I think this comes from the blending of celebrity names.
Among the “High School Musical” people, they don’t call Zac Efron and Vannesa Hudgens by their names, it’s “Zanessa”.
I think it’s really dumb.
Calling this really dumb insults the dumb.
I prefer the English aristocracy method of naming, wherein the child receives a separate name for each important family in their lineage, and then they use the one that is most favorable at the time.
I'm surprised that there wasn't an argument over which name would go first in the combination.
Another acquaintance made a deal with his wife: she took his name but all the kids got her maiden name as their middle names, which is a stop short of hyphenated last names for the kids and, I thought, a great compromise for them.
I’ve come across some teenagers who have hyphenated legal last names. They seem to stop using the hyphenated version and just use the father’s last name.
Personally I’m not a fan of the hyphenated name. I understand why people do it but I think it limits the feeling of unity in a family.
What about the union of Mr. Funk and Ms. Tucker
LOL! There’s a lot of fun to be had with this concept, methinks...
Yeah, I bet I could really get myself in trouble with this one.
I wish I had a copy of the ickiest wedding announcement I’ve seen...the Crapps-Brown wedding.
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