I have a crazy idea.

When a man marries a woman, often, she takes on his last name or more recently a combination of his and her last names or in rarer instances, she keeps her own last name.

My idea fits man-woman, man-man, and woman-woman marriages. 

Would you agree that a marriage is a sort of joining of two lives?

That thought led me to my crazy idea. In honor of the love shared and the long term commitment to each other, why not both partners take a completely new name that would represent the marriage and the new life they share together?

Mr. Jones and Mr. Adams want to chose a new name. What would they choose? Well, they both have common names so why not try on something with a common name in it. How about Smithsonian?

I know that is already taken, but it illustrates what you could do. And then there is the questions about first and middle and extended names.

This idea removes the patriarchal system that honors the fathers past and honors instead the current joining.

Please take the time to tell me how crazy I am and how ludicrous this idea is.

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Comment by AtheistTech on March 2, 2012 at 1:17am

Hmmm...My mom and dad came from a very small and poor village in Macedonia. My mom took my dad's last name when they married, but in Macedonia, there is a masculine version of my father's last name and a feminine version which my mom used, but had to give it up because the USA in the 1960's did not recognize the different forms and told my parents that they would have 2 different names (implying they would not be married).

In my 45 years on this Earth, I have heard many stories from people who came from other parts of the world to the USA. The general theme was that people had a family name, but when they came to the US, they, for a variety of reasons, made the decision to "Americanize" their name.

Your story below is not very different from other Europeans.

I would like to point out that the reasons and decisions used by your Dutch ancestors are different from my idea in a fundamental way. In my idea, we no longer consider our ancestors' names in the current decision of choosing a new name for that would honor the new joining of two people in the present.

Genealogy would be carried out with DNA.

I'm hoping that honoring the present instead of the past would focus humanity's efforts in the present.

Why not the plastic wand? Or the ivory wand? Or the candy wand? Or the wand of cheese?

Comment by thewoodenwand on March 1, 2012 at 11:46pm
I think choosing your Surnam will become commonplace again but it is hell on geneologists.
Comment by thewoodenwand on March 1, 2012 at 11:44pm
That is not a new idea, my ancestors were Dutch and when they came to America your last name honored your grand-parents. If your grandfathers name was Lief and your dads name was Eric you were Lief Ericson. Your first daughters name was the Mothers mothers first name. If you did not like the last name if Dutch, my great x 8 grand father was Douwse Harmansen and meant the same as the english name Herman Talma or Tallman. so hundreds of Douwse and Harmans became Hermans and Tallmans in the US.

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