![]() The comma, colon, semicolon and their siblings are integral parts of writing, pointing out grammatical structures and helping us transform letters into spoken words or mental images. One "barrel" is normally considered the "core" of the name: most people I know use only the core barrel in informal situations, such as when introducing oneself at a party.As readers and writers, we’re intimately familiar with the dots, strokes and dashes that punctuate the written word. A double-barrelled surname is now legally treated as together being a single name in most of Europe (Iberia is of course different), regardless of hyphens or spaces. In Germany, double-barrelled names are normally hyphenated, I believe. ![]() In Holland, double-barrelled names are never hyphenated a hyphenated name is always that of a married woman and not inheritable (I'm sure there exceptions, though, as there always are). Conventions have been established about e.g. ![]() In modern times, these double or triple or quadruple names have been formalised. This was under the Napoleonic occupation, whose laws forbade adding names so the son was officially entered into the register as having his mother's name as one of his first names, later to be insidiously turned into a surname.) (My mother's (non-noble) family got their second barrel when the name of some great-great-grandmother was about to go extinct. I suspect that this is also behind many of the well known English double-barelled names that are old but not noble (or were only recently ennobled). In Dutch law, this is still the only situation in which one is legally allowed to add a second name to one's name. The use of a specific spelling or composition of one's name was not important in the Middle Ages, not like now.Īn important reason to add a second "barrel" to the name of a commoner is to prevent the name of one's mother's family from dying out. This could later be shortened to "Henry Bavaria Heidelberg". Or one could be known as "of Bavaria", but of a cadet branch residing at Heidelberg, and call oneself "Henry of Bavaria Heidelberg". Prepositions are still used, like the famous German "von und zu", theoretically indicating that one came from a certain area and/or rules over it, and still resides there "von und zu Franckenstein" is short for "von Franckenstein und zu Frankenstein". In Mediaeval times, one could, for example, be lord of both Aragon and Castile, and use the name "Ferdinand of Aragon and Castile" in official correspondence (although the higher the rank, the more names one usually had and has). ![]() England was in many ways not that much different from the Continent, I believe. ![]() There are many ways and reasons for one to acquire a second or third surname. You shouldn't look at the phenomenon as originally "a double surname", but rather as having several surnames. Which family is the first recorded to use hyphenated names? Is the history of their decision documented? Is the practice actually adopted from another language or culture?Īlso, at what point did a hyphenated name come to distinguish the individual over the family unit? Stated differently, when did hyphenating your name become popular across all segments of society? I'm guessing this is closely related to the women's liberation movement and civil rights movements in the USA, but I don't have a source for that. I would like to know some of the additional history of this practice. It is easy to imagine the negotiation of a marriage could include a clause for a hyphenated surname for the newlyweds.įrom a modern perspective, this looks an awful lot like marketing or brand management, where the bride's family has to protect their trademark to prevent their brand from being diluted. This makes sense on a hereditary-rule/feudalism perspective where wealth and prestige were major points among families of the ruling class. I found this answer by John Hanna which implies that the practice originated with the British aristocracy or 'upper-bourgeoisie' as dubs them. ![]()
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