Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site dartvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!dartvax!mike
From: mike@dartvax.UUCP (Mike Morton)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: What's in a name?
Message-ID: <707@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Feb-84 20:38:27 EST
Article-I.D.: dartvax.707
Posted: Thu Feb  9 20:38:27 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Feb-84 05:50:37 EST
Distribution: net.kids,net.women
Organization: Dartmouth College
Lines: 29

[ . <- You are here.]
 
About kids' last names...  Mine is actually fake, taken by my dad's family
upon immigrating.  Not caring much for my name, I'd rather give a child my
middle name (my family name, which I do care for) and the mother's last.
 
[Aside: I didn't use "his/her mother's..." there, which brings up sexism in
pronouns.  Ursula LeGuin's novel "The Dispossessed" describes a world of no
possessives -- saying "THE mother's" is the only way to say it.]
 
A related issue is taking a spouse's name.  How about swapping names?  This
comes up because I've heard of women who plan to take their husband's name,
whether he wants them to or not!  Were I to find myself marrying a woman
who wanted my name, I'd insist on swapping, for symmetry.
 
Naming girls for mothers (and boys for fathers) is bad; it enforces role
models.  Allowing a child to choose is worse.  Coin-flipping?  How about a
coin flip to see whether children will take names from parents of the same
sex or from the opposite sex?  No -- then all boys (or girls) in one family
have a common last name, a sexist division.  One could coin-flip for the
first, and alternate for each later child...  (What about twins? :-) )
 
I think I like made-up names.  And to avoid children getting names like
"Moon-Unit Zappa" or "God", check out (again) "The Dispossessed": kids get
random, unique names... from a computer.
                                               -- Mike Morton
USENET: ..!decvax!dartvax!mike  or  ..!linus!dartvax!mike
USMail: c/o Kiewit Computation Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755
(PS: Pardon this slow response; dartvax' news has been delayed.)