Reader Dan Mallon writes:
When we were married almost 13 years ago, my wife and I combined our
last names with a hyphen. It wasn't too bad. I liked Mallon-Kraft
better than Kraft-Mallon, so my wife's name went last.
I got a bit of grief from some of my buddies, but no real hassles, so
it wasn't much of a problem personally. However, the general public
couldn't figure out a hyphenated name for the life of them. I got mail
to Mallonkraft, Mallograft, Maccon-karft, Kraft D. Mallon,....
People would abbreviate, "the M-Krafts are coming... the M-Ks.... the
Mallon-Ks..."
When our son was 2, we changed to just Mallon. I believe my wife felt
sufficiently liberated in our marriage that the consequences of the kid
with a hyphenated name were more pressing. It's not that there'd be
big consequences, but rather a matter of inconvenience. My wife said
something to the effect, "If people are just going to abbreviate it,
the whole point of retaining both names doesn't make much sense."
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