Comments on: Sarkozy and a sign of debasement

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:59:20 +0000

Just wanted to comment over a year and a half later to say that “Junior Matthewsson” would be a terrific name for a European DJ/producer.

By: Kate

Kate — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:55:50 +0000

Exactly – your children would be Junior Matthewsson or Junior Matthewsdottir. I believe one of the Indonesian forms of name (of which they have several) is very similar to this too.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:01:37 +0000

Wait, so Björk’s father’s name was also Björk?

Or was it something like Guðmund, as in Björk Guðmundsdóttir?

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:58:26 +0000

Nope! Icelandic names take the father’s first name!

By: jason

jason — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:07:19 +0000

You know, they are kinda amusing (mine’s a little funny, too). However, I’ve taught several kids over the years whose last name is Butt, and I think that takes the cake (even though they’re of Middle Eastern background, so they get a partial pass, but still, Butt is funny no matter what way you slice it).

I’m with you on the choice thing. I’d never pressure my future wife, whoever she may turn out to be, to change her name — but if she wanted to, I’d be fine with that. The only question would be the kids… hyphenated names are just awkward all over, and what would happen if two people with hyphenated names got together and had a kid? Do you string ‘em all together? And hey, whose name goes before the hyphen and whose goes after? Because if the dad’s goes first, isn’t that paternalistic too?

Maybe we should just be all Cher-like and go by a single name. Ethiopians and Indonesians and Icelanders do this; we can too.