Re: Giving Your Children Unique Last Names?
 

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no and sounds very dumb-weird

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What a comment.

Re: Giving Your Children Unique Last Names?
 

Meh, there's no right answer in such situations. If you insist on the kids having your last name, you're a male chauvinist. If you let the kids have her last name, then you appear pussy-whipped. If you create some new last name for your kids, you come off as attention whores who are treating your kids' names as conversation pieces and as a means of showing the world how you refuse to cave in to societal norms.

Re: Giving Your Children Unique Last Names?
 

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The idea is that each child will be independent and unique, yet still bonded to the family in love and in name.

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I think this explanation is a little hokey, but I think the general idea is fun and creative. Why does everyone need to adhere to the same social custom?

That being said -- I actually like this particular social custom, so my kids will have my last name. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: Giving Your Children Unique Last Names?
 

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The idea is that each child will be independent and unique, yet still bonded to the family in love and in name.

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I think this explanation is a little hokey, but I think the general idea is fun and creative. Why does everyone need to adhere to the same social custom?

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I always wince a little when people start talking about being "fun and creative" with their children's identities. Some people treat their children as fashion accessories and don't give any thought to the future repercussions of their actions on their children. Most kids don't want to stick out and be different -- they just want to fit in. Giving your kid a different last name than his/her parents will make it look to the world like he/she is a foster child or was adopted. It will be even worse if the parents decide to give their kids "fun and creative" last names...like Johnny Moonbeam, or Samantha Pussywillow.

Re: Giving Your Children Unique Last Names?
 

In the book Freakonomics, he has a whole section on naming conventions across time and economic classes. He actually looks at whether a name can affect your path in life. There was actually one guy one named one son Winner and the other son Loser - (first names). Loser ended up being much more successful than Winner.

Re: Giving Your Children Unique Last Names?
 

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It will be even worse if the parents decide to give their kids "fun and creative" last names...like Johnny Moonbeam, or Samantha Pussywillow.

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close!

Re: Giving Your Children Unique Last Names?
 

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In the book Freakonomics, he has a whole section on naming conventions across time and economic classes. He actually looks at whether a name can affect your path in life. There was actually one guy one named one son Winner and the other son Loser - (first names). Loser ended up being much more successful than Winner.

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One thing that was really wierd about that chapter: he's asking if DeShawn Williams would be better off changing his name to (#1 whitest first name Williams, or #2 whitest first name Williams). The latter is my name, first and last, and spelled correctly.

Re: Giving Your Children Unique Last Names?
 

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I always wince a little when people start talking about being "fun and creative" with their children's identities. Some people treat their children as fashion accessories and don't give any thought to the future repercussions of their actions on their children. Most kids don't want to stick out and be different -- they just want to fit in.

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I speak from personal experience in recommending that anything unusual in names be avoided. I was given the same first, middle and last name as my father, which was not all that unusual some years ago, and which many people still do. He was called by his first name, and I was called by my middle name. I was never comfortable with it as a child, and it continued to be an inconvenience as an adult. And that is nothing compared to weird first names and creatively different last names.

A conventional system of names is very important to a child. I know of women who kept their married names after a divorce so that they and their children would have the same name, much as they disliked the original bearer of the name. These things are very important to children, and can have a big effect on them.

Re: Giving Your Children Unique Last Names?
 

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This was something I had never heard of before. But, a friend of mine knows a couple who give their children unqiue last names- meaning the kid's last name is not the same of either the father or mother (who kept her maiden name).

This is how it was explained: Each child receives a unique first and last name. The last names are chosen from a list of maiden and unused names from the mother and father's parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. They choose the sur names to match the first names. The idea is that each child will be independent and unique, yet still bonded to the family in love and in name.

Do you know anybody who has done this? What do you think?

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The world is filled with immature, self-absorbed people.

Re: Giving Your Children Unique Last Names?
 

Sounds nice enough. We were just figuring alternating last names, and let the kiddies decide when they are older if "Allen" or "Armstrong" sounds better. No [censored] way I'd get a hyphen, and if kiddies change their names it doesn't matter because they don't have credit cards.