MORE ON NAMES
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."