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From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.kids
Subject: Re: What's in a name?
Message-ID: <922@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 8-Feb-84 17:43:12 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.922
Posted: Wed Feb  8 17:43:12 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Feb-84 03:10:53 EST
References: <6816@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills
Lines: 38

My girlfriend and I have had a few long, if somewhat hypothetical,
discussions on this topic.  It began when she suggested that if we were
to get married, she should keep her last name.  I agreed wholeheartedly
for several reasons, only one of which was to buck the sexist naming
tradition.  For one thing,  I  l i k e  her name;  it suits her, it's
what I've always known her by, and neither one of us can think of any
good reason why she should change it.  For another thing, her name is
particularly important to her as a symbol of her ethnic identity: she
is an American of East Indian descent, and although the American side
of her personality predominates, the fact that she is named "Pauravi
Rana" is a nice link with her cultural heritage.

Then we turned to the subject of the (hypothetical) children's names.
First and middle names were easy.  Pau has a niece named "Mira
Michele", and both of us like the idea of that sort of mixed Indian/
Western name.  There are, as much as it might surprise you, many Indian
names which are both pronounceable and pleasing to the American ear.
But the last name was more difficult.  We considered all of Sophie's
possibilities.  Giving different siblings different last names seemed
too confusing.  "Rana-Riddle", "Riddle-Rana", and "Raniddle" (!) all
struck us as ludicrous; "Randall" would be a legitimate hybrid but
seemed too alien to us.  We were stumped.

Finally, after we had thought about it for a few days, something
occurred to us.  I am a blond, hazel-eyed, fair-skinned European type;
Pau is quite dark.  All the odds are that the kids would look like her
and not a bit like me.  If the children would get their physical
appearance primarily from their mother, shouldn't they get at least
s o m e t h i n g  to show who their father is?  Why not a last name?
-Ding- went the lightbulbs over our heads.  Case closed.

I realize that this solution applies to very few of you out there, but
I couldn't resist posting it.  Hope I haven't bored you with too many
personal details.

--- Prentiss Riddle
--- ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle