I know this is probably contentious for some but I really don’t understand the recent trend for married partners to take up double barrel surnames for perceived equality purposes. Are these double barrel surnames passed down to their children? If so what happens when a person with a double barrel surname marries someone also with a double barrel surname and has the same need for ensuring equality/status, do they and their children end up with quadrupole barrel surnames? We could end up with surnames such as ‘Johnson - Thompson - Montgomery - Entwistle’! Where does the doubling up of surnames end as it could soon become ridiculous (with no room on forms to enter them 
)? Is there some unwritten rule to prevent such ridiculous situations occurring?
Yes, it’s silly and maybe some people thinks it makes them sound more ‘aspirational’.
Mind you, you’ve got a double barrel surname yourself: rider_off
No actually it’s triple barreled ‘First_Rider_Off’ 
I think the Monty Python team did a sketch many years ago taking the p*zz out of such absurdities!
Ha! Now you say it I do have vague memories of such as sketch. Maybe I will check it out to see if they came up with an answer 
What’s interesting is that names have been formed by the combination of different words for a long time….
Ralph is a Germanic, Irish, and Scottish masculine given name, derived from the Old English Rædwulf and the longer form Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse Raðulfr It is also a surname and often a nickname of [Rudolph], a name deriving from two stems: Hrōþi, Hruod, Hróðr or Hrōð, meaning “fame”, “glory” , and olf meaning "wolf
Hmm, I also have vague memories, far too many…
Sometimes they’re of sketches or films, and Blazing Saddles comes to mind where a town had everyone called Johnson, and my vague memory suggests some were Johnson-Johnson…
Where I used to work, the system generated email accounts based on the name of the new user.
There was one user with something like 10 names in total, and it would have been one long email address if not for the ability to submit special case requests to get the email address shortened.
That said, as it was up to the user to decide if they wanted it done, there were people who just stuck with long email addresses.
So yes, people do end up with very long-barrelled surnames from things such as this.
It’s another American thing that has been imported from there to the UK. They have this strange inheritance thing over there as they have a limited history and like to have something from the past. That’s why they take to our ex monarchy folk, as they don’t have their own.
I think this originated here in Victorian times, not in the USA.
Regards
William Williams-Willams
My Grandfather had three Christian names and three surnames.
On another note i am a fourth generation David and my eldest Son is a fifth generation David.
Mine is double-barelled and is quite a few generations old (over 250 years). It arose because the female of the marriage was monied and the male was not. The females parents did not want the name to disappear (this was when the woman took the man’s name, no options) so it was agreed that both names would be combined as double-barelled. The resultant surname is Male-Female format.
It used to mean posh . Latterly , it can mean a bit council . The combination of weird forenames with double barrelled surnames seem to be disproportionately represented in court reports in my local paper .
Using the name “Twisleton-Wyeham-Fiennes” would possibly get you a better table at “Le Manoir” …
Apparently being a British admiral with the name “Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax” did not cut much ice with Molotov in the run up to WW2
My own un-hyphenated middle name is carried down from my father and was his mother’s maiden name. This appears to have been actually a very common practice, particularly in the Victorian era.
Interesting thread!
I also have a double barrel surname (un-hyphenated) but by choice!
As a female, when I got married I did not want to give up my maiden name, so added my husbands surname after it.
To put this into perspective - I did not do it to make me sound posh or whatever - I did it because I did not want to lose my Dad’s surname.
Dad passed away when I was only a child, and my Mum did an amazing job of dealing with that and bringing me up. Now she has gone too, I am the sole surviving member of the family, so when I spring off my mortal coil, the name will be gone forever, but I want to hang on to it for as long as I am still on this earth!!!
As a Lover of History I’ve Found Reading This Thread Fascinating 
Last Chap I Dated Had a Massive Choice of Surnames Available to Him as His Mother Had Married Three Times and He’d Been Adopted Twice plus Other Historical Variabilities he was Entitled to Use 
As a 1950’s Born Female My Surnames have been My Late Father and Late Husband
*We Did Discuss Marriage and Potential Surnames and Came to a Compromise Based on PRACTICAL COMMON SENSE and WHAT EACH PERSON FELT COMFORTABLE WITH plus DISCUSSION WITH OFFSPRINGS et al"
Perhaps that is the Unwritten Rule ?
Anyway…We Didn’t Marry For Other Reasons
Sorry…Sense of Humour Getting the Better of Me Now re Names:
Major Major Major Major [Catch 22]
I Could Have Been Named After a Whole Football Team !
Best
There’s no answer to that!
My Dad had 3 Daughters…Second Sister Used His Surname as Her Sons First Name or Indeed These Days It Could Be Considered a Girls Name
That Is How My Family Coped With Keeping the Name
If This Helps ?