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Couples find new names for marriage
The Sunday Times (U.K.) ^ | 07/16/06 | Sarah Baxter

Posted on 07/15/2006 4:49:25 PM PDT by Pokey78

NEWLYWEDS in America are “meshing” their names in an attempt to banish the sexism that comes when a woman takes her husband’s surname. Much as the tabloid newspapers have christened film stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes “Tomkat”, couples are opting to mix and match elements of their names as a sign of togetherness.

Gary Ruderman, 43, a playwright and architect, got married last year to Jodi Wilgoren, a writer for The New York Times. The couple now go by the name of Rudoren. Ruderman’s wife-to-be first raised the subject, saying that she would love to share his name but on an egalitarian basis.

“I have a lot of respect for Jodi so I considered it,” he said. “Some clients couldn’t wrap their heads around it, but very few people I talked to said, ‘Oh that’s stupid’.”

One friend teased Ruderman that “married life has taken the ‘man’ out of you” but even his parents came around to the idea. “They felt it was a little bit unusual, but I think they were just happy that, at 42, I was getting married,” he said. “My mother has taken to introducing me as her son Gary Rudoren.”

Jodi Rudoren, 35, ruled out hyphenation when her nephew pointed out that “our name wouldn’t fit on the back of a sports shirt”.

One name-meshing pioneer is Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles, who combined his name of Villar with his wife’s name of Raigosa in 1988.

“I was planning to take his name,” his wife Corina recalled. “But he said, ‘Really? But Raigosa is your name’.

“He said, ‘I’ve been thinking about it and why don’t we combine our names to make one name? If you are willing to take my name, I should be willing to take yours’.”

Villaraigosa recalled that “guys made fun of me” but the voters of Los Angeles have long since forgotten it.

The feminist custom of retaining one’s maiden name is going out of fashion. According to Claudia Goldin, an economics professor at Harvard University, the number of college-educated women in Massachusetts who kept their original name at marriage dropped from 23% in 1990 to 17% in 2000.

“It’s gone the same way as feminism,” Goldin said. “There has been a shift even among liberals towards more family-oriented values.”

Those who begin by hyphenating their surnames often give up, Goldin added: “They have these long names and then they have problems with the school district or the plumber. It gets too hard.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: homosexualagenda; marriage; metrosexuals; sitzpinklers
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1 posted on 07/15/2006 4:49:26 PM PDT by Pokey78
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To: Pokey78

There is nothing wrong with a woman taking the husband's last name after marriage. I detest hyphenated names.


2 posted on 07/15/2006 4:51:09 PM PDT by proudofthesouth (Mao said that power comes at the point of a rifle; I say FREEDOM does.)
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To: Pokey78
NEWLYWEDS in America are “meshing” their names in an attempt to banish the sexism that comes when a woman takes her husband’s surname.

Yeah, she gives up one man's name for another.

3 posted on 07/15/2006 4:51:13 PM PDT by TheDon (The Democratic Party is the party of TREASON!)
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To: Pokey78

I have met a few men who hyphenated their last names...

liberals


4 posted on 07/15/2006 4:51:46 PM PDT by misterrob
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To: Pokey78
One name-meshing pioneer is Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles, who combined his name of Villar with his wife’s name of Raigosa in 1988. "

How very . . . metrosexual.

5 posted on 07/15/2006 4:52:18 PM PDT by BenLurkin ("The entire remedy is with the people." - W. H. Harrison)
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To: Pokey78

wholesale emasculation agenda alert.


6 posted on 07/15/2006 4:53:18 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand (dust off the big guns.)
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To: Pokey78
“Some clients couldn’t wrap their heads around it, but very few people I talked to said, ‘Oh that’s stupid’.”
That's stupid
7 posted on 07/15/2006 4:53:31 PM PDT by DuxFan4ever
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To: Pokey78

Oh, please...


8 posted on 07/15/2006 4:54:41 PM PDT by cardinal4 (John Kerry-National Embarrassment)
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To: Pokey78

It's no more stupid than the trend of people giving their children a last name for a first name.


9 posted on 07/15/2006 4:55:50 PM PDT by hunter112 (Total victory at home and in the Middle East!)
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To: Pokey78

Hillary Rodclint.Nice.


10 posted on 07/15/2006 4:56:23 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
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To: Pokey78
And future generations of genealogists will curse them for this.

What happened to men being proud of the name their father gave them and women being proud to take the name of their beloved husband?
11 posted on 07/15/2006 4:56:32 PM PDT by msnimje (There is no way we can lose if we stay in Iraq and no way we can win if we cut and run.)
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To: COUNTrecount

Is that worse than Bill Clintrod?


12 posted on 07/15/2006 4:57:35 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Have some hyperbolic rodomontade, and nothing worse will happen for the rest of the day!)
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To: Pokey78
How stupid the world is becoming.
13 posted on 07/15/2006 4:57:48 PM PDT by ladyinred (The NYTimes, hang 'em high!)
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To: Pokey78
Gary Ruderman, 43, a playwright and architect

In other words a liberal. I am sure they met at a pro-choice rally.
14 posted on 07/15/2006 4:59:40 PM PDT by TheRedSoxWinThePennant
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To: Tax-chick

Remove the "N" in both names.Both apply.


15 posted on 07/15/2006 4:59:44 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
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To: Pokey78

Danielle Crittenden writes beautifully about women and names: If she keeps her maiden name, she will indeed set herself apart from being Mrs. His Wife, but she will also set herself apart from her own children.
Her example: With every new introduction, "This is Mr. Serbia, Junior Serbia, Sally Serbia, and, oh yes, over here is Mrs. Bosnia Herzegovena."

This combining "solution" sets both husband and wife apart from their ancestry and their children, if their children follow their example and come up with new combinations


16 posted on 07/15/2006 5:00:02 PM PDT by jwalburg (It wasn't the Executive that Thomas Jefferson referred to as "the Despotic Branch.")
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To: COUNTrecount

Ouch!


17 posted on 07/15/2006 5:01:23 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Have some hyperbolic rodomontade, and nothing worse will happen for the rest of the day!)
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To: COUNTrecount

Hillary Rodclint.Nice.

Hillery Clintham?

Bill Rod-on?

I still like impeached former first lady.


18 posted on 07/15/2006 5:01:56 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Pokey78

Couples find new names for marriage.

Why can't they just call it hell, like the rest of us.


19 posted on 07/15/2006 5:02:45 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: proudofthesouth
Everytime you see a hyphenated name, you can bet with 1000% accuracy it is Clinton supporter. It never fails. Why? Because liberals have 1000 times the arrogance and ego of normal people.

Human cow and major Clinton supporter Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (surrounded by effeminate Metrosexuals)


20 posted on 07/15/2006 5:03:53 PM PDT by Screamname (Pray for me, Hillary is my Senator.)
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