He’s French, she’s American. He’s giving up his name and taking hers. Their kid, when born, will also take her name. Why? She explains:
“It would be an honour to have his last name, but I can’t pronounce it,” she said.
No word on why he can’t keep his.
presumably so he'll have the same name as his kids — which is a reason given by a lot of women who take their husbands' names.
my mother never changed hers, & we got my father's last name, but i never felt less related to my mother than my father, or whatever. so i'm planning to do the same (sure, i wouldn't mind if the rhetorical kids had my last name instead of his, but i don't care enough to fight him or his family or the patriarchy over it).
“presumably so he’ll have the same name as his kids”
Not a big issue around here, but the couple says they’re planning to move some day, so it’s possible.
And of course the kid could take dad’s name, giving mom even more incentive to learn it.
ah, yes. i didn't click through to the story, & i forgot that in montreal, they encourage both parties to keep their names.
as for your second part, i would actually guess that not giving their kids weird names is even moreso the motivation. some prospective parents are really hung up on minimizing the teasing they think their kids will get. i know of at least one family who changed their family name for that very reason (no word on whether the kids became outcasts for some other reason).
My buddy Marie-Eve emails the following:
“I think this is funny! You are right, it is kind of odd that instead of learning how to prononce the name, they will change it. But what surprises me the most is that they write about something like that in The Gazette. The subject does not seem too serious.”
Marie-Eve is a French speaker, so she’s not superfamiliar with the Gazette. If she were, she’d know that they print any damn thing.