Double-Barrel names.

[L Austin France]

Seems to be getting more & more prevalent these days when two folk get married & always seems a tad pretentious to me.
What's the point of it as, if a woman wants to keep her maiden name when married, there's no legal requirement to change it? This also applies to same sex marriages where there's no legal requirement to take the name of husband or wife.
Always seems a burden for any offspring to carry & what happens if they have kids who marry & do the same thing? Would it be a double-double barrel name?

[Blaze]

LAF - and what about children born out of wedlock ?!! Children can use either or both names though officially it may depend on how they were registered at birth.
I know someone called Brigite (sic) who was misspelt on registering her birth, but she has kept the one "t".
I may be wrong but I believe in France they are allowed to change their name once (I don't think this includes marriage).
Many women feel they lose their identity in taking heir husband's name, and what happens if you are widowed and marry again ? That said, as many of us have found out, some documents here are in our maiden names (driving licence for instance).

[hughnique]

I seem to think that a lot of these double barrel names are more prevalent with what we are told is the ethnic minority, athletes in particular seem to favour them

[exile]

Germany had to go as far as issuing a law about the use of such names because there were marriages happening where for example
Schmidt-Klemt was marrying Meyer-Peters and the resulting family name was Schmidt-Klemt-Meyer-Peters.

[MAD87]

My French ID card has my maiden name on it, much to the chagrin of FR electoral officers who find O'Leary difficult to get their tongues around.

[curtis]

Do they pronounce it like Manuel in Fawlty Towers?

[Wilbro]

And the Americans with such as Fred Hamburger 111. Pretentious and I would introduce them as FH the one hundred and eleventh. Roman numerals in a country that's just out of nappies?

[MAD87]

Do they pronounce it like Manuel in Fawlty Towers?

It's pronounced here with many mouth gymnastics and an extra syllable!

[curtis]

Manuel called the builder Mr O'Reilly Orilly.

[L Austin France]

Manuel called the builder Mr O'Reilly Orilly.

Same pronouciation as our notaire with the same name.