Double-barrelled name
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In English-speaking and some other Western countries, a double-barrelled name is a family name with two parts, which may or may not be joined with a hyphen, for example Bowes-Lyon or Ebanks-Blake. The term is an analogy with double-barrelled shotgun.
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[edit] Formation
Double-barrelled names may be formed for a variety of reasons. Some are formed when the family names of two people are combined upon marriage or civil partnership, thus forming a new two-part surname, or when children are given surnames combining those of both parents. Double-barrelled names may also be used by children who are not brought up by their birth-parents to combine the surname of a birth-parent with that of an adoptive parent, or the surname of their biological father with that of a stepfather. Other families believe that the act of consistently passing on only the father's name is patriarchal in nature, and choose double-barrelled names for feminist reasons, and for same-sex couples, to emphasise equality between partners. To avoid the use of double-barreled surnames, a small number of couples create a new blended surname, combining parts of each name into one (ex. Villaraigosa).
In Nobility, in the past especially, if a women married down from her social status it was common for her and her husband to use a double-barrel name. Both as not to diminish the social status of the women and as to gain her husband a higher social status.
Double-barrelled names are sometimes adopted when the man has a common surname such as Smith or Jones which the couple want to avoid after marriage; hence double-barrelled names often incorporate a common surname. For instance, if Mary Howard married John Smith, they could choose to become Mary and John Howard-Smith (with the man's surname usually going second). In the vast majority of cases, though, they would simply opt for Mary and John Smith.
Some double-barrelled names are formed in order to prevent a family name otherwise dying out, due to the lack of males in a generation and/or when notable property is inherited through the female line with a stipulation that the individual inheriting use the family name.
For same-sex couples and their families, the presumptions of gender are irrelevant; many agree on one name or another (usually the more pleasing) without any preconceptions of which name should take precedence, or combine the two as a double-barrelled name.
In Spanish-speaking countries, having a non-hyphenated double-barrelled surname is the norm and in some cases (e.g. Spain) it is actually the law.
[edit] Upper-class families
A few upper-class families (e.g. Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe; Cave-Browne-Cave; Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound; Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby; Vane-Tempest-Stewart) have "triple-barrelled" surnames (created when one spouse has a double-barrelled name and the other has a single surname). Nowadays, such names are almost always abbreviated in everyday use to a simple or double-barrelled version. There are even a few "quadruple-barrelled" surnames (e.g. Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, Stirling-Home-Drummond-Moray; Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax) and the surname of the extinct family of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos was the quintuple-barrelled Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville. Captain Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache is sometimes quoted as the man with the most ever "barrels" in his surname (six), but in fact all but the last two of these (Tollemache-Tollemache) were forenames.
Because of this avoidance of common surnames, and because many upper class families have double-barrelled surnames, it is often assumed that double-barrelled names indicate a certain pretentiousness or snobbishness on the part of the bearer. As noted above, however, double-barrelled names may be adopted for a number of quite different reasons.
[edit] Written form
Many double-barrelled names are written without a hyphen, although this is technically incorrect, as for a name to be officially recognised as a surname (to avoid classification as a middle name), it is often hyphenated, e.g. John Maynard-Smith as opposed to Iain Duncan Smith. (This can cause confusion as to whether the surname is double-barrelled or not.) Notable persons with unhyphenated double-barrelled names include two former British Prime Ministers, David Lloyd George and Andrew Bonar Law, the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, Amy Rose McMullen, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies.
[edit] Practices by country
In Spain, everyone has a double-barrelled surname by law although they are written without a hyphen and most people use only their first surname in everyday use. When a person is born, the custom is for them to take the first surname of the father and then the first surname of the mother. Thus, if Sr. Roberto Rodríguez Santana and Sra. Anna Zapatero Vilaseca have a son called Pedro, he would become Pedro Rodríguez Zapatero. The tradition of double-barrelled surnames is also the norm in most Latin American nations, with the exception of Argentina and Ecuador.
In France a recent practice has been to use two consecutive hyphens -- (not the same as a "long hyphen" or dash, or with a double hyphen) to distinguish between recently formed double barrelled names and ancient hyphenated family names (French: nom composé).
In Canada, especially Quebec, it has been common for children born since the 1960s to bear a double-barrelled name composed of both parents' names, with no established rules as to whether the father's or mother's name should come first. (In Quebec current provincial law and French Canadian custom, both spouses retain their original surnames upon marriage.) This was so prevalent that naming laws had to be amended in the early 1990s when those with double-barrelled began to marry, and wished themselves to give their children double-barrelled names. In such cases, any combination involving one element of the father's surname and one element of the mother's is permitted. A common practice is for boys to be given their father's surname, and girls to be given their mother's surname.
In Germany a double-barrelled name (German: Doppelname) is generally joined with a single hyphen. Other types of double-barrelled names are not accepted by restrictive German name law. However, exceptions are made for immigrants and for marriages where the double-barrelled name already was the official name of one partner before marriage. The crewmembers of the famous First World War cruiser SMS Emden were allowed to add the name Emden with a hyphen to their surname as a special honour.
In Poland a double-barrelled name (Polish: nazwisko złożone ), is generally joined with a hyphen and by law includes only one hyphen. Polish surnames, Nazwisko, like those in most of Europe, are hereditary and generally patrilineal, i.e. passed from the father on to his children. A married woman usually adopts her husband's name. However, other combinations are legally possible. The wife may keep her maiden name (nazwisko panieńskie) or add her husband's surname to hers, thus creating a double-barrelled name (nazwisko złożone). Married man can also adopt his wife's surname, or add it to his, making double-barelled name, if he want, it's legally possible.
[edit] In popular culture
The song "Tom O'Malley-Finkel-Harris-Smith" by Lou Nathanson makes fun of this phenomenon by asking "What will happen when all the people with hyphenated last names start having grandchildren?" In the song, names are eventually limited by law to 10 million characters.
In the BBC television series Hotel Babylon, head receptionist Anna Thornton-Wilton is the proud owner of a double-barrelled surname, which serves as an additional commentary on the character's general presentation as a pretentious, self-centred would-be social climber. The term is used directly by the character in the second episode of the first series when a minor subplot deals with her misadventures in trying to get both 'barrels' printed properly on her name tag.
[edit] References
- Burke's Family Index
- Burke's Landed Gentry (various editions)
- Burke's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage (various editions)
