Creating familyname??

Selvi · Mar 30, 2006

Hi all,

This may be an odd question, but something I want to do.. U know how americans & even north indians have family names. As a tamilian I dont have any family name. I use my father's first name as my last name.

My husband's name is much longer, I want our kid to have a small first name and small last name...

So if I want to create a family name for ourselves starting from my kid, how do I do that? In USA is it a rule that kid's last name should be dad's name or can I put a new family name as my kid's last name?

Is there anyway I can do this? Any suggestions please..

vidhukumar · Mar 30, 2006

Hey Selvi,
i have seen people put Iyer..Iyengar....etc.... as their family name!!so u cud try that!!

Vandhana · Mar 30, 2006

family name

Hi Selvi,

What is your husband's last name? That is in his passport, he will have afirst middle and last name. For e.g my hubby's last name is the name of our ancestral Village. We have adopted that as our official family last name and my children all have that as the last name. So you could also use the last name of your hubby and make it a family name.

so the format will be as follows:

childs name. hubby's first name. hubby's last name ( which will be the official family name)

Hope this helps

Vandhana

rathi · Mar 31, 2006

How is this idea of family naming?

Hi Selvi,

As you said, in my case - before marriage my last name was my father's name(maiden name) and after marriage my last name was changed to my husband's name. After coming to the US, I am also fond of this family naming. Though I am yet to name a kid here in the US, I wanted to share something that I have come across.

One of my friend's back in India, though he is a North Indian basically and has a family name inherited for generations, decided along with his wife to form a new family name from their kids generation.

His name is Lalit & his wife is Rachana - so he combined their names to form a family name as - Rachit. His explanation is that to make his wife also feel that it is not just the husband's name or family name that get's carried for the kids, she has a equal share in it. I admire his thoughtfulness. What do you say?

May be you can try combining something like that. Good luck for a safe delivery. BTW, did you find out whether your having a boy or girl?

Warm wishes,
Rathi

Selvi · Mar 31, 2006

Thanks for all ideas ladies!!!

Vidhukumar, u r right.. only question is how do they legalise that.. I am still trying to find that.

Vandhana, my husband also has his father's name as last name which is also much longer .

Rathi, thats a nice idea..Hats off to ur friend's thought. Its more like Jolie-Pitt, u must have heard, the kids Angelina adopted have Joile-Pitt as last names

As I think of it, there should be some legal way to put a new name as last name. I will have to enquire with some legal person..

Thanks for the wishes, I m having a boy!!!

Thanks again all..

Have a great day!