Quote:
Originally Posted by MysticCat
Half the people in my family go by their middle names, including one of my children. Very common in this part of the world. I don't think any of them have found it to be a major inconvenience to simply say "I go by MiddleName." Meanwhile, when my sister got married, she just stopped using her first name.
Or we could do it the Icelandic way. I've mentioned this at GC before, so I'll cut and paste.
In Iceland, your last name depends on your father's first name, and a family of four can have four different last names. Say dad's name is Eric -- his son, Leif, is Leif Ericsson (Eric's son), and his daughter, we'll call her Katrín, is Katrín Ericsdóttir (Eric's daughter). Meanwhile, Helga -- Eric's wife and the mother of Leif and Katrín -- is the daughter of a man named Jón, so her last name is Jónsdóttir; she doesn't change it when she gets married. Oh, and Eric's dad's first name was Stefán, so his name is Eric Stefánsson.
So, in one family, you have Eric Stefánsson (husband) and Helga Jónsdóttir (wife) and their kids: Leif Ericsson and Katrín Ericsdóttir.
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In Norway there's also naming in relation to the land. Since we are land owners, our name includes our farm/property name. If there are only daughters, the man who marries in will take our name, since he is coming to our land and joining our family. Also anyone who worked our farm, would also have our farm name, as part of their name. We also had the Icelandic example of yours, with the . We ended up with relatives having different last names coming through Ellis Island, some with Iverson, and some with Farmname.
I'm not hyphenating or taking any potential husband's name. I'm too established and what a hassle, and my last name is dying out anyway.
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