Multiplying Names.

I've blogged about names before, but here's something about them I haven't mentioned in previous posts.

In times past when a woman got married she left her "maiden name" behind and took her husband's last name as her own. That's how it was alwsys done. Period.

Today lots of people think that's sexist, and since it originated because women became the property of their husbands when they got married it certainly was in times past.  Today it's just traditional.

But in our time when people marry they often share each others' surnames.

For example if Mary Jones and Bob Black get married they may become Mary Jones-Black and Bob Jones-Black. And their children may (or may not) use the combined names as their own.

But what would happen if they do, and then Susie Jones-Black marries Jim Brown-Smith? Should they and their children have the last name of Brown-Smith-Jones-Black?

And what if those children were to grow up and carry on that tradition with their own kids. In a few generations people would have surnames so long they could hardly remember them!

Of course this isn't likely to happen, but it's amusing (to me, anyway) to think about.