British tradition Unhyphenated double-barrelled surnames Many double-barrelled surnames are written without a hyphen, which may lead to confusion as to whether it is a surname or a
given name combined with a single-word surname. Notable persons with unhyphenated double-barrelled surnames include politicians
Catherine Fleming Bruce,
David Lloyd George (who used the hyphen when appointed to the peerage), and
Iain Duncan Smith, composers
Ralph Vaughan Williams and
Andrew Lloyd Webber, writers
Charles Cowden Clarke and
Mary Cowden Clarke, military historian
B. H. Liddell Hart, soldier and translator
C. K. Scott Moncrieff, evolutionary biologist
John Maynard Smith, astronomers
Jocelyn Bell Burnell and
Robert Hanbury Brown, actresses
Kristin Scott Thomas and
Helena Bonham Carter (the latter of whom has said the hyphen is optional, and indeed several of
her relatives use it in their names), footballer
Emile Smith Rowe, musician
Romy Madley Croft, and comedian
Sacha Baron Cohen (whose cousins, psychologist
Simon Baron-Cohen and filmmaker
Ash Baron-Cohen, use the hyphen in their names). The surname of the
Holmes à Court family is double-barrelled; the birth surname of the
2nd Baron Heytesbury was 'à Court', and he took the surname 'Holmes à Court' subsequent to marrying Elizabeth Holmes. In Wales, many families have double-barrelled surnames. The preponderance of only a few surnames (such as Jones, Williams, and Davies) led to the usage of double-barrelled names in Wales to avoid confusion of unrelated but similarly named people.
Hyphenated double-barrelled surnames Many British noble or gentry families have double-barrelled surnames, examples of which include
Bowes-Lyon,
Bulwer-Lytton,
Cavendish-Bentinck,
Chetwynd-Talbot,
Crichton-Stuart,
Douglas-Hamilton,
Douglas-Home,
FitzAlan-Howard,
Gascoyne-Cecil,
Gathorne-Hardy,
Gordon-Lennox,
Hely-Hutchinson,
Innes-Ker,
Monckton-Arundell,
Mountbatten-Windsor,
Petty-Fitzmaurice,
Pleydell-Bouverie,
Sackville-West,
Scudamore-Stanhope,
Spencer-Churchill, and
Windsor-Clive.
Multi-barrelled surnames A few British noble or gentry families have triple-barrelled surnames, such as
Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe,
Baillie-Hamilton-Arden,
Cave-Browne-Cave,
Douglas-Scott-Montagu,
Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound,
Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby,
Lyon-Dalberg-Acton,
Pelham-Clinton-Hope,
Smith-Dorrien-Smith,
Sutherland-Leveson-Gower,
Vane-Tempest-Stewart,
Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, and
Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes. These indicate
prima facie the inheritance of multiple estates and thus the consolidation of great wealth. They are sometimes created when the legator has a double-barrelled name and the legatee has a single surname, or vice versa. Nowadays, such names are almost always abbreviated in everyday usage to a single or double-barrelled version. For example, actress Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe calls herself
Isabella Calthorpe. There is at least one instance of an unhyphenated triple-barrelled surname: that of the
Montagu Douglas Scott family, to which the
Dukes of Buccleuch belong. There are even a few quadruple-barrelled surnames. These include
Cameron-Ramsay-Fairfax-Lucy,
Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis,
Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce,
Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers,
Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie,
Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, and
Stirling-Home-Drummond-Moray. The surname of the extinct family of the
Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos was the quintuple-barrelled
Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville.
Traditions on Iberian Peninsula In
Spain, surnames are strictly regulated by the Civil Code and the Law of the Civil Registry. When a person is born, the law requires them to take the first surname of the father and then the first surname of the mother. Thus, when D.
Julio Iglesias de la Cueva and Dª
Isabel Preysler Arrastía had a son named Enrique, he legally was
Enrique Iglesias Preysler. On the other hand, actual double-barrelled names exist (called ), such as Calvo-Sotelo or López-Portillo. For example,
Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo y Bustelo is the son of Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo and Mercedes Bustelo Vázquez. Such names may reflect the attempt to preserve a family name that would be lost without this practice. The creation of such names must be approved by request to the Ministry of the Interior. Sometimes a conjunction meaning "and" is inserted between the paternal and maternal surnames, as in the Castilian name
Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz and the Catalan
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia. Spain's
hidalgo families often used double-barrelled names in conjunction with the
nobiliary particle (of). Toponymic family such as the surnames García de las Heras, Pérez de Arce, or López de Haro combine a regular family name with the branch of the family. For example, the "López" branch hailing from the Rioja town of
Haro, La Rioja. Surnames associated with
Spanish nobility follow the same custom, such as
Álvarez de Toledo,
Ramírez de Arellano, or
Fernández de Córdoba. In these cases, the first surname indicates the original name of the family, whereas the second surname denotes the nobiliary
fief of that family. In this context, the conjunction "de" (of) reflects that the family used to be the feudal lords of that place. Thus, the Ramírez were the lords of the village of Arellano, in
Navarra. In
Portugal, where most of the population have two to four surnames (), the practice of using a double combination of surnames is very common. The person can either use a paternal and a maternal surname combined (
Aníbal Cavaco Silva) or use a double last name that has been passed down through one of the parents (
António Lobo Antunes). The last surname (normally the paternal one) is usually considered the "most important", but people may choose to use another one, often favouring the more resonant or less common of their surnames in their daily or professional life (such as
Manuel Alegre or
José Manuel Barroso, who is known in Portugal by his double surname Durão Barroso). The use of more than two surnames in public life is less common, but not unusual (see
Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen). Combined surnames of two gentry families from Portugal are also prevalent, such as
Nogueira Ferrão. One historic early aviator,
Alberto Santos-Dumont, is known to have not only often used an equal sign (=) between his two surnames in place of a hyphen but also seems to have preferred that practice, to display equal respect for his father's French ethnicity and the Brazilian nationality of his mother.
Germanic tradition In
Germany, a double surname () is generally joined with a single hyphen. Other types of double surnames are not accepted by German name law. However, exceptions are made for immigrants and for marriages where the double surname was already the official name of one partner before marriage. A 1993 law forbids surnames with more than two components. Prior to this, it was permitted for adults (e.g.,
Simone Greiner-Petter-Memm and formerly
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann-Maier-Leibniz Alternatively, both partners may keep their own name and choose which of the surnames is passed on to children upon the birth of their first child. Some of these Dutch surnames also survive in South Africa, for example, the rugby player
Rohan Janse van Rensburg's surname is Janse van Rensburg, not just van Rensburg (which is itself an existing surname). In addition, it was common for a wife to be known by her husband's surname (first) and her original/birth name (second) hyphenated. Nowadays, couples can choose any combination of surnames for official use (although their legal name will remain unchanged). It remains most prevalent for the wife either to use a hyphenated surname or her original/birth name. Few husbands use a hyphenated surname. All children of a couple need to go by the same surname (either their father's or their mother's) and will not normally have a hyphenated surname.
Scandinavia Denmark has a tradition of double surnames originating in the 19th century. This was a result of two
naming acts obliging commoners to adopt heritable surnames, passed first for the
Duchy of Schleswig in 1771 and then for
Denmark proper in 1828. Most people chose their patronymic as their heritable surname, resulting in an overwhelming dominance of a few surnames. To reduce the risk of mistaken identity, many Danes started using their mothers'
original/birth names as a heritable
middle name (similar to the Russian or
Hispanic system), rather than as a second
given name (as in the
English system). One example is three successive
prime ministers of Denmark all sharing the same last name,
Rasmussen, so they are usually referred to by their middle name:
Nyrup,
Fogh, and
Løkke. Currently, the Danish order of names invariably places the patronymic
-sen at the end, regardless of whether that name has been passed down by the father or mother, or adopted through marriage. Unlike the Russian or Hispanic systems, this surname-style middle name is not considered a proper last name in official documents, unless hyphenated into one compound name.
Poland In
Poland, a double surname (, "complex surname") is generally joined with a hyphen. Polish surnames (, singular), like those in most of Europe, are hereditary and generally
patrilineal, i.e., passed from the father to his children. A married woman usually adopts her husband's name. However, other combinations are legally possible. The wife may keep her original/birth name (, literally: "maiden surname") or add her husband's surname to hers, thus creating a double name (
nazwisko złożone). A married man can also adopt his wife's surname, or add it to his. Polish triple-barreled surnames are known to exist: an example is the one borne by , a university professor and writer living in Canada.
Russia In
Russia, double-barreled surnames are somewhat uncommon, but normal and accepted practice, often associated with some families of note wishing to preserve both of their lineages. Federal law #143-FZ "On Civil State Acts" explicitly allows double-barreled names in its Article 18 but limits such compound surnames to two parts only. '''Article 18. Recording a child's surname, first name, and patronymic during state registration of birth''' 1. During state registration of birth, the surname of the child is recorded according to the surname of his parents. With different surnames of the parents, by agreement of the parents, the child is assigned the surname of the father, the surname of the mother, or a double surname formed by joining the surnames of the father and mother to each other in any sequence, unless otherwise provided by the laws of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. It is not allowed to change the sequence of joining the surnames of the father and mother to each other when forming double surnames for full brothers and sisters. The double surname of the child may consist of no more than two words, connected when written with a hyphen.
Turkey The Turkish civil code previously prohibited women from using their maiden names alongside their new surnames after marriage. In 2014, the Turkish Constitutional Court ruled that this was a violation of a woman's rights, and the law was amended.
French Canadian tradition Until the late 19th century, some French Canadian families had a tradition. This was a family nickname (literally a 'said name'). The origins of the were various. Some were the war-name of the first settler, while he was a soldier: ('pretty heart', compare 'Braveheart'), ('mountain chopper'). Some denoted the place of origin of the first settler: (
Anjou), (
Poitou). Others denoted a characteristic of the person or of his dwelling: ('the run'), ('the thorn'), ('the river').
China Most
Chinese surnames are a single character. However, in modern times, some families have combined the surnames of both parents to create new names. Some examples of double-barrelled surnames include the Changchien () clan in
Taiwan, being a combination of the surnames
Zhang and
Jian. This practice is different from having a
Chinese compound surname, where more than one character is used in a surname. In 2007,
Chinese officials suggested that parents should be encouraged to create two-syllable (two-character) surnames for their children by combining their parents' (one-syllable) surnames; this could make people's names more unique and "could help solve the problem of widely recurring names".
Nigeria In
Nigeria, a double-barrelled surname is adopted when an aristocratic woman marries a lower-ranked man. It also occurs when a ruling family adopts the forename of their patriarch as part of their surname to distinguish themselves from others who might share their surname. An example of the former is that of the Vaughan-Richards family, a group of descendants of the Nigerian royal-turned-American-emancipated-slave Prince
Scipio Vaughan, who maintain their mother
Ayo's last name as well as their father
Alan's (at the time of the marriage, the
Vaughan family awarded the couple land in
Lagos as a wedding gift). An example of the latter is that of the royal family of King
Adeniji Adele of Lagos, who are distinguished from their numerous
Adele cousins by the use of the double-barrelled name "Adeniji-Adele" (which ties them to the
era of his reign).
Philippines The
Filipino naming tradition is derived from the Hispanic system but was influenced by the American (Anglo-Saxon) naming tradition when the Philippines became a
United States colony in 1901. A child will customarily carry the mother's original/birth name as the middle name and carry the father's surname. When a woman marries, she keeps her original/birth surname and adds the husband's surname, but does not typically hyphenate it. So, when Maria Santos Aguon marries José Lujan Castro, her name becomes Maria Aguon Castro, and their children will typically carry the middle name Aguon and the surname Castro. The use of the maternal surname as a middle name derives from American influence, with Filipinos adopting English naming customs, when they once used
Spanish naming customs, which use two surnames (paternal and maternal) joined with the particle
y (or
e before ). This still remains in use but is restricted to formal purposes, police records, and legal proceedings. In the original Spanish naming system, the middle name corresponds to the paternal surname, not the maternal one. In the Philippines, this middle name (or the maternal surname) is often abbreviated to a middle initial. Thus, a person with the full name Juan Santos Macaraig may become Juan S. Macaraig, whereas according to the Spanish naming system, they would be Juan Macaraig y Santos. However, the maternal surname may not always be the middle name. In some cases, a second given name may be abbreviated instead, as is the case for
Jose P. Laurel. ==Recent developments==