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Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!mason
From: mason@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Mason)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Family Surnames
Message-ID: <2335@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 26-Sep-83 21:48:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.2335
Posted: Mon Sep 26 21:48:42 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Sep-83 00:33:13 EDT
References: <616@ihuxl.UUCP>
Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto
Lines: 25

We've been married 7 years.  My wife chose to keep her name.  This doesn't
bother me (I occasionally get called Mr. Doucette - which I usually repond
to) but seems to drive nearly everyone else in the world crazy.  My mother
usually addresses mail to us and uses: "Dave & Beth, address, Toronto" -
no surnames at all.  A couple of months ago my father addressed a letter as
"Mr. & Mrs. Dave Mason" - I gave him hell, but he really didn't understand
what the big deal was (despite wanting to be referred to as "Mr Mason" or
"Pop" rather than by his first name).  My father-in-law always addressed letter
as "Beth Doucette, Mrs. Dave Mason" (presumably because he didn't want some
deliverer of mail to think she was "living in sin").  Many other people
seem to find the arrangement somewhat strange.

I don't completely understand why names bother people so much.  I will
answer to almost anything that is not obscene or rude.  From my perspective,
the only problem comes when/if we have kids.  Probably we will opt for
hyphenation (my wife feels this MUST be Mason-Doucette) although we were/are
toying with names like: Masette or Douson (if you ever want to see real
shock on parental faces tell them their grand-child is going to have some
unconventional name like these)  (I'd never typed those names out..not too
bad...)

Interested in hearing of other experiences...
 -- Dave Mason, U. Toronto CSRG,
        {cornell,watmath,ihnp4,floyd,allegra,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!mason
     or {decvax,linus,research}!utzoo!utcsrgv!mason   (UUCP)