Welp, first thread. Figured I'd have made one about forgotten games like Quest 64 before this.
My soon-to-be fiance (picking out rings) doesn't like my last name. So when it comes to marriage and the tradition of the wife taking the husband's last name, she's not a fan of taking my name. She's traditional, so she doesn't want me to switch to her last name. Problem for her is she just doesn't like the prospect of taking mine after marriage. And the idea of each of us retaining our names seems bizarre to her. I'm indifferent.
Well, the solution she and her friends brainstormed was for us to pick a new last name and both change to whatever we choose. So John Doe and Jane Smith become Mr. and Mrs. John Taylor. Or some shit like that. I'd be the jerk who picks the last name of some Final Fantasy character and laughs to myself whenever I write my name somewhere.
I hadn't even considered this to be an option. So the question is... what would you do?
- For the men, would you do this?
- For the men and the women, is my aversion to changing my name despite not caring for my name (more below) a bad thing? Does it make sense even if its irrational? Is it just a byproduct of a patriarchal society with the male dominating relationships, one that would lead to Jezebel commenters tearing me apart?
My thoughts on my last name:
#1. My last name is ugly. I don't care for it.* For something with so few letters, it doesn't roll off the tongue, it's not pleasant to say or hear, it doesn't even look nice when spelled out. My mother doesn't care for it. I don't think my father cares for it either; he would have rather had his mother's maiden name because it was Italian.
#2. The name doesn't mean shit anymore about preserving a family lineage. My parents are divorced. My mother reverted back to her maiden name. My grandparents are divorced. My grandmother remarried and took a new name. My grandfather with the last name is estranged, disappeared over a decade ago with some new woman, and no one in the family cares about him. The only people with my last name are my father, brother, sister, and one uncle. Four people. That's it. No one else in the extended family has this last name. And my extended family (through second cousins) is huge.
Edit:
Eh fuck it. Last name is Gruber.
Yes. Like Hans Gruber from Die Hard. Often mispronounced by people reading it for the first time as "Grubber", and so few people get the damn movie reference. It's also an ugly sounding name to say or read, which is why it works for a German bad guy in an action movie.
On top of that, my grandfather on my father's side is part German because his dad was part German. That's as deep as the German/Austrian goes. It's like an odd relic that got passed down with no meaning behind it.
My soon-to-be fiance (picking out rings) doesn't like my last name. So when it comes to marriage and the tradition of the wife taking the husband's last name, she's not a fan of taking my name. She's traditional, so she doesn't want me to switch to her last name. Problem for her is she just doesn't like the prospect of taking mine after marriage. And the idea of each of us retaining our names seems bizarre to her. I'm indifferent.
Well, the solution she and her friends brainstormed was for us to pick a new last name and both change to whatever we choose. So John Doe and Jane Smith become Mr. and Mrs. John Taylor. Or some shit like that. I'd be the jerk who picks the last name of some Final Fantasy character and laughs to myself whenever I write my name somewhere.
I hadn't even considered this to be an option. So the question is... what would you do?
- For the men, would you do this?
- For the men and the women, is my aversion to changing my name despite not caring for my name (more below) a bad thing? Does it make sense even if its irrational? Is it just a byproduct of a patriarchal society with the male dominating relationships, one that would lead to Jezebel commenters tearing me apart?
My thoughts on my last name:
#1. My last name is ugly. I don't care for it.* For something with so few letters, it doesn't roll off the tongue, it's not pleasant to say or hear, it doesn't even look nice when spelled out. My mother doesn't care for it. I don't think my father cares for it either; he would have rather had his mother's maiden name because it was Italian.
#2. The name doesn't mean shit anymore about preserving a family lineage. My parents are divorced. My mother reverted back to her maiden name. My grandparents are divorced. My grandmother remarried and took a new name. My grandfather with the last name is estranged, disappeared over a decade ago with some new woman, and no one in the family cares about him. The only people with my last name are my father, brother, sister, and one uncle. Four people. That's it. No one else in the extended family has this last name. And my extended family (through second cousins) is huge.
Edit:
Eh fuck it. Last name is Gruber.
Yes. Like Hans Gruber from Die Hard. Often mispronounced by people reading it for the first time as "Grubber", and so few people get the damn movie reference. It's also an ugly sounding name to say or read, which is why it works for a German bad guy in an action movie.
On top of that, my grandfather on my father's side is part German because his dad was part German. That's as deep as the German/Austrian goes. It's like an odd relic that got passed down with no meaning behind it.
