[net.women] Name Changes -- what do you call the kids?

gkloker@utai.UUCP (Geoff Loker) (08/26/85)

In article <314@tekla.UUCP> brianc@tekla.UUCP (Brian Conley) writes:
>  [Example of how he and his wife have handled not changing names upon
>   marriage.]
>  
>3) BEFORE you decide to have kids decide how to handle the last name.
>   The first names were easy, decided the second month.  The LAST name
>   was decided 12 hours into labor, but I'm not complaining.

This is another interesting question -- what *do* you call your children
when you and your SO have different last names?  Is hyphenation the answer?
Do you call the first one by the one spouse's last name and the next one
by the other?  Do you go traditional and give them all the husband's name, or
give them all the wife's?  What other alternatives are there?
-- 
Geoff Loker
Department of Computer Science
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON
M5S 1A4

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shuju@videovax.UUCP (Shuju Burgess) (08/30/85)

> >  
> >3) BEFORE you decide to have kids decide how to handle the last name.
> >   The first names were easy, decided the second month.  The LAST name
> >   was decided 12 hours into labor, but I'm not complaining.
> 
> This is another interesting question -- what *do* you call your children
> when you and your SO have different last names?  Is hyphenation the answer?
> Do you call the first one by the one spouse's last name and the next one
> by the other?  Do you go traditional and give them all the husband's name, or
> give them all the wife's?  What other alternatives are there?
> -- 
> Geoff Loker

[...rumor has it that there is a line eater...]

Something that I think is real neat (but have never had the 
chance to check out other opinions) works like this: have the girls 
take the mother's last name and have the boys take the father's last
name.  Since the chance of having boys vs girls is almost 50-50, this
seems to be a fair way of deciding.  Also, if any one is hung up on
the idea of carrying on the family name, both parents will have the
opportunity to do so.  So what do you think?

Shu-Ju Wang Burgess

ps.  I took my husband's name after much arm twisting from my family.
Their excuse was that my residence status was unsettled, and I didn't
need any more hassles from the INS than was necessary...and I gave in...