{"id":12645,"date":"2017-04-07T09:25:26","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T13:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=12645"},"modified":"2021-01-11T22:24:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T02:24:57","slug":"baby-naming-issue-if-they-use-the-mothers-surname-as-the-babys-first-name-does-the-mother-now-have-to-change-her-surname","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2017\/04\/07\/baby-naming-issue-if-they-use-the-mothers-surname-as-the-babys-first-name-does-the-mother-now-have-to-change-her-surname\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Naming Issue: If They Use the Mother’s Surname as the Baby’s First Name, Does the Mother Now Have to Change Her Surname?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle!<\/p>\n

I am such a fan of your site, advice, and writing.<\/p>\n

I am now pregnant with my first and stuck on a boy’s name. There are many girl’s names that my husband and I both like but boys names are harder for us.<\/p>\n

If the baby were a girl, we would be in the neighbourhood of Vera, Eleanor, maybe Margot.<\/p>\n

Some of the boys’ names we like are relatively classic but feel plain like William, Benjamin, maybe Leo.<\/p>\n

My husband’s last name is Carruthers (spelled with an o in place of the u here) and my last name sounds like Hair-ick (spelled with an “rr” in please of the “ir”, and no hyphen).<\/p>\n

For the longest time I’ve thought that my last name would make such a solid name for a boy. Nickname Harry possibilities, and paired with my husband’s Scottish\/Irish sounding last name the combination of Hair-ick Carruthers sounds very proper.<\/p>\n

However there are two issues with this.<\/p>\n

One is that, well, my maiden name is still my last name. Although I always thought I would end up changing it, it felt weird-ish when we got married to just have a different name all of a sudden and the hassle of having to fill out so much paperwork from so many separate government offices wasn’t exactly enticing. If we did go with this name, would I probably have to change my last name?<\/p>\n

Finally the harsh sound of going from the first name ending in ‘ick to beginning the last name with the hard “C” sound in Carr- might, I think, be problematic. I’m not sure but wanted your take on it.<\/p>\n

My husband agrees that it would be a nice name for a boy but we’re both stuck on these two issues.<\/p>\n

Appreciate your wisdom!<\/p>\n

xx
\nMichelle<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh, what an interesting question. I have mulled it over a bit and here is my own personal feeling about it, in two parts:<\/p>\n

1. No, you would not have to change your own surname.
\n2. In fact, I think it makes it better if you don’t.<\/p>\n

It may occasionally result in brief confusion—but, it seems to me, always FUN brief confusion, with a FUN (and easy) explanation. And I love the way it points out that your son’s name is your two surnames combined. It takes something I love (maiden names used as first names) and EMPHASIZES it.<\/p>\n

The -ck\/C- issue is fine with me. I find I pretty easily start putting a tiny pause in there, and also it feels like a minor and Worth It kind of issue.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name update:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi Swistle! <\/p>\n

I have a naming update for you from many millennia ago (3 years, ha). We were debating H@rrison or H@rrick (my last name), I made a little deal with myself that if the baby’s hair was dark I would name him H@rrick (my last name) and if his hair was light, I would name him H@rrison. I am a brunette and my husband is blonde, and he came out with a bunch of very light hair so H@rrison it was. It suits him and we call him Harry about 80% of the time. <\/p>\n

THEN about two years later I shockingly got pregnant with boy\/girl twins. I was IN LOVE with Harvey but Harry and Harvey is way too matchy to be in a sib set so I scrolled and scrolled looking for a boy’s name that could either end in a “-y” sound or be made into a “-y” nickname because I love nicknames. Finally I came across the name Sulliv@n and it felt magical, that was it for sure. Now the girl’s name. With two last-name names I wasn’t sure what to do and we went into the hospital with two names, Vada and M@eve. After about 24 hours my husband tried calling the baby Vada and it just felt wrong so M@eve it was. I love that they both have a V in their name but are in general pretty different sounding. Naming was the best part of being pregnant and I wish I could do it again! (but not that much ;)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle! I am such a fan of your site, advice, and writing. I am now pregnant with my first and stuck on a boy’s name. There are many girl’s names that my husband and I both like but boys names are harder for us. If the baby were a girl, we would be in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3hX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12645"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15157,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12645\/revisions\/15157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}