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    What Was Your Father's Bachelor Name?

    Posted Friday, July 31, 2009 3:15 PM | By Kerry Howley
    Photo of wedding by Digital Vision/Getty Images.On the subject of matrimonial name-changes, Josiah Neufeld has a piece in the Globe and Mail about his own decision to change his name to that of his wife. There's all the usual angst that comes with a semantic switch of identity, plus some gender-based scorn from the relatives (they think he's joined a "matrilineal cult"), plus a kind of lexical void: What does a man who assumes a new name call the one he leaves behind? As Nuefield puts it, "I need a good title for my maiden name: 'former name' is boring; 'ex-name' sounds like a cast-off lover; 'birth name' implies I was adopted; 'unmarried name' evokes a monastic twin who hasn't called since moving to Tibet." What say you, commenters? ... (Read more in Double X.)
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