Aaron would like everyone to know that he deeply disaproves of the hyphen in our blog address. For the record, he wants everyone to know he never before and never will appreciate such a difficult punctuation. He is amending that, he only disapproves of hyphens found between names.
He thinks it is illegal to Germany and it should be illegal in America and in our marriage. Is it illegal in Germany? I doubt that. They seem like such a friendly, liberal country, just like our marriage is such a friendly liberal relationship. He is happy to accept suggestions for a new, better and unhyphenated address. I am less happy to accept such a change.
-Katy
5 comments:
Josh always says that if everyone hyphenated their names upon entering marriage that it wouldn't take to may generations to have 16 last names.
I on the other hand don't really feel strongly about one way or the other. I just find this post highly amusing.
That's exactly why Germany outlawed it.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05286/588031.stm
I do object to the name of this blog, on account of the hyphenation. In no way do I endorse hypenation, I want to make that very clear. The Germans have the right idea. There hyphenation is outlawed, for fear of hypenation multiplication. Else after say, three generations, last names would potentially contain sixteen last names, and fifteen hyphens. This is obviously a ridiculous result and shows clearly that hypenation is a fad and must eventually meet its demise. Adoption of the last name of the male when two people marry is an arbitrary process. To be sure, it signifies a patriarchal culture and I understand objections to that, but a decision must be made. For the sake of geneologists and bureaucrats everywhere I think that cultural consensus in regards to naming practices is important. The shorter and simpler the better. Additionally, why increase the syllabic burden of the general public? Remembering names is hard enough. Think of some poor first grade kid who is learning to write his or her name. What if their last name is 100 letters long? What if they get in trouble and have to right their name on the blackboard 100 times? All I have to say is cruel and unusual punishment. Also, because the practice is still unusual, many do not notice hyphenation and unintentionally give offense to those to whom it is important. Basically, I think hypenation is silly and cannot suceed because of the hyphenation multiplication problem in suceeding generations. The cultural practice of women adopting their husband's names may be sexist at its root, but it is an arbitrary distinction. There are other ways to fight sexism. Personally, I like the idea of having one last name in a marriage/family. It's a sign of unity.
Just because someone hasn't taken another's name or hyphenated doesn't mean they're not united. I believe it comes in handy. If your searching for a woman's history, then you can find her family because her name is hyphenated. It reminds me of the Swedish culture of deciding on a last name. The last name comes from the father's last name. -Abby:)
Maybe you don't want to hear this, but I think hyphenating is silly for the same reasons as the rest of you. So my answer is...just don't have women change their names. I know....really liberal. But think of how easy it would be to do genealogy if no one's name EVER changed. Think of how easy it would be to find your friends from high school that you have lost touch with. The possibilities are endless. Don't get me started, else I might just change my name back to Zirker. Oh the bliss. And I don't buy that about not being united if you don't share a last name. Let's imagine heaven....I think it will be sans last name, so let's all get a juumpstart and never change our names. Sure we will put millions of people out of work in the SSA who take care of issuing new SS cards to people who change their names, but don't you all know someone who bought plane tickets in their married name for their honeymoon and then realized they didn't have any ID in that name. (Don't worry, this was not me). Okay, I think I am done. Katy, I think you are funny.
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