Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Last Names for Children

The Goddess of True Love had a sense of humor at times.  She managed to make Delbert Loose and Christine Bowels become smitten with each other.  The kept their own names, as couples often do nowadays.

After six months their bouncing baby boy, Darrell, appeared.  But what last name should baby Darrell get?  Darrell Loose, Darrell Bowels, or Darrell Loose-Bowels?  Our intrepid parents decided to name him Darrell Lowell, amalgamating the parents' names.  After all, why stick their beloved son with either ugly name?

The Tennessee Attorney General was recently asked an opinion by a concerned legislator: Can parents give a child of theirs' a surname different from either of theirs'?

The AG's opinion was that either parent's last name was acceptable, or hyphenating the two; but they could not give a child a new last name that was different from both parents'.

Thus a small bit of freedom gets eroded.  Gee, even Republicans can act so arbitrary at times.  In my opinion, the child's first and last name should be solely the parents' decision.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/state/tenn-ag-parents-cant-give-kids-new-last-names_51691825

7 comments:

  1. I think the Tennessee Attorney General would get overturned in court. But how much money would they spend getting it done? Sounds like something for the ACLU.

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  2. I don't think it should be a choice. I don't really care if it's the fathers last name or the mothers, as long as it's consistent. Historically it's been the fathers.
    So many women "disappear" when they change their last name after marriage. I think that the names shouldn't change, so that it's easy to track down your ancestors.

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  3. Can the child change his own name later on?

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  4. Even Republicans, LOL


    ALOHA from Honolulu
    ComfortSpiral
    =^..^= . <3

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