Double barrel names. A query.

[Danbert Nocurry]

When married couples keep both surnames what happens when they have kids?

What happens when little Walker-Seddon falls in love with Smythe-O'Reilly?

[Danbert Nocurry]

Any double barrelers on here? Step forward and make yourself known.

[that_fjell_guy]

My mate was called Adrian Murray....now he's Adrian Murray-Walker!?

[sevendaughters]

When married couples keep both surnames what happens when they have kids?

What happens when little Walker-Seddon falls in love with Smythe-O'Reilly?

there are instances in seriously posh families that triple and quadruple barrelling will occur. often common sense or patriarchality prevails. double barrels seem a lot more common these days, not just the reserve of aspirational types.

[Danbert Nocurry]

there are instances in seriously posh families that triple and quadruple barrelling will occur. often common sense or patriarchality prevails. double barrels seem a lot more common these days, not just the reserve of aspirational types.

But what happens when their quad barreled children meet other quad barrelled kids? Where does it end?

[sevendaughters]

But what happens when their quad barreled children meet other quad barrelled kids? Where does it end?

at that stage it's probably incest.

[Danbert Nocurry]

at that stage it's probably incest.

.....

[noel]

Isn't this the case in Spain? I seem to remember they take on surnames, based on various family lines, but then call themselves something that resembles what we would consider a normal name.

For example: José María Olazábal Manterola

In fact, I've just consulted Wikipedia, and here's how it goes:

In the generational transmission of surnames, the paternal surname’s precedence eventually eliminates the maternal surnames from the family lineage. Contemporary law allows the maternal surname to be given precedence, but most people[citation needed] observe the traditional paternal–maternal surname order. So the daughter and son of Ángela López Sáenz and Tomás Portillo Blanco are usually called Laura Portillo López and Pedro Portillo López, but also could be called Laura López Portillo and Pedro López Portillo. Regardless of the surname order, all children's surnames must be in the same order when recorded in the Registro Civil.

So if Algernon Bennett-Smythe married Charlene Taylor-Fotheringham, using the Spanish tradition, they would have eg, McKenzie Bennett-Taylor.