Aah, Switzerland.
Apparently if Reto and I were both Swiss and getting married, at the time of our marriage we would have to decide on what our "family name" (ie. shared surname which would also be given to our potential/hypothetical children) would be and then stick with it forever (or maybe we could change it down the track, I don't really know, but the point is that everyone in the family is legally obliged to have the same name. Or at least the same name in their name, so some of us could be hyphenated-of-surname and some of us just have the shared name). There is no requirement that it be the man's name or the woman's name that is taken, or even a name that either of the people have already, but still, a shared name is needed.
I find this system overly intrusive. Personally I have no intention of changing my name after we get married. I like my name (although as everyone who knows what it is will acknowledge, it is kind of ridiculous. Possibly less so here because here it isn't a noun, and actually I suppose it is pronounced differently here, thus meaning that perhaps I sort of have a different name already, but if the point was that my name was too ridiculous to keep I would probably change my first name too), I feel like I have abandoned enough aspects of my former life and identity already by agreeing to live in Switzerland, and I have no particular fondness for Reto's name. Reto apparently also has no desire to adopt my name and ditch his own.
Happily, since I am foreign, we are allowed to adopt the rules used in my homeland, which means we can both carry on as who we are and we can call our kiddies whatever we want (actually I'm not too sure on that point either, but whatever we want relative to the normal Swissy way of doing things). If we were both Swiss, though, we might well be faced with a bit of a problem*.
In other news, there is no equivalent of Ms here either (as in Ms as opposed to Miss or Mrs).
* Of course maybe if I was Swiss I wouldn't think the Swiss way of doing it was odd or invasive.
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4 comments:
Marcus and I have been discussing the surname implications of our own impending marriage. I have no desire to become a Williams, and no sane human would ever voluntarily choose to be a Hukins. Our options seem to be sticking with what we have, or both changing our names to something else by deed poll. We're considering Yeats, which is his maternal grandparental name and which I don't hate.
Hey as for there being no equivalent for Ms. I thought, German ''Frau'' means young adult woman regardless of her relationship status ? More like Ms.? huh?
We're also toying with the idea of choosing some brand new surname for ourselves, which apparently would be quite controversial and wacky here. The fact that it would have to be easy to pronounce in both german and english (and pronounced the same, which I think is the most important point) makes it all a bit harder. We also toyed with the idea of translating our surnames into the other language (ie. mine into german, his into english. happily both our surnames are nouns) and trying them out, but they are both hideous. And all combinations of our surnames have terrible other connotations that make them really really awful.
As for the Frau thing, yeah, I was just talking about it with Reto and as it turns out all my knowledge of the use of Frau/Fraulein is hideously outdated (it comes from The Sound Of Music, actually). Nice! (although you would think that after a year of living here it should have known. It seems I haven't filled out any forms while I have been here)
I just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
Go you good thing!!!
muchos love from Sydney!
Duncan
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