Re: Anthroponymy (was Re: Re: Laadan)

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> Do you really mean (if I understood that correctly) that when a woman mar=
> ries,
> she receives *both* the personal name and family name of her husband? She
> doesn't keep at least her personal name?
It depends on the context.  Consider the (obsolescent) American rules.
My mother, Marianne Schultz, was born in 1919 and married my father,
Thomas A.  Cowan, in 1950 or so.  Legally, she then became Marianne Cowan,
and professionally, she used this name also.  However, socially she was
"Mrs. Thomas A. Cowan".  Jointly considered, my parents were therefore
"Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Cowan" and mail often arrived addressed to
them thus.

My father's previous wife, Mary Johnson, was socially "Mrs. Mary Cowan" or
"Mrs. Mary Johnson Cowan", but not being married to my father she could
not use "Mrs. Thomas A. Cowan".  (My parents in fact referred to her as
"Mary J.", however.)

Now all these rules have broken down and women may or may not change their
surnames on marriage and/or divorce.  My wife and I are "Gale and John
Cowan" (or vice versa), and if titles are in order (less often than in
my parents' day) it is "Mr. John Cowan" and "Ms. Gale Cowan".  My wife
had kept her name from a previous marriage while she was unmarried,
but she felt it was stupid to continue keeping it when she married me;
this decision drew some comment in our circle, though in most of the
U.S. name changes are still normal.

The choice to use Mrs. or Ms. is individual, but it would be beyond weird
to use Ms. followed by the husband's first name.  Some people, to be
sure, have multiple identities: the 1984 U.S. vice-presidential candidate
was "Ms. Geraldine Ferraro" professionally but used her husband's name
"Zaccaro" in purely social contexts.  After several months of referring
to her as "Mrs. Zaccaro" and confusing the bejesus out of its readers,
the _New York Times_ finally broke down and accepted "Ms.", which
theretofore had been banned.

(Interesting word "theretofore": it is a tensed adverb, the past tense of
"hitherto".)

--
Deshil Holles eamus.  Deshil Holles eamus.  Deshil Holles eamus.
Send us, bright one, light one, Horhorn, quickening, and wombfruit. (3x)
Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!  Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!  Hoopsa, boyaboy, hoopsa!
  -- Joyce, _Ulysses_, "Oxen of the Sun"       jcowan@reutershealth.com