HA!HA! Great jokes guys!

What do you call a blonde behind a steering wheel? An airbag.

She didn't want mine. Hell, even I don't want mine. It's a liability in this province. It begins with St, which causes much confusion and mis-pronunciation.

Ahh the Brighton St John Smythe's?

Not quite but in the same ballpark. My surname is very uncommon in the province, so I guess it's understandable that the St will be taken as Saint.

I nearly missed a plane because of it once. I was on a wait list and didn't recognise the name being called.

In Belgium women keep their own names too. I'm not sure what happens in France, but I suspect they keep their names.

Why shouldn't they

I know a guy in Germany who took his wife's name because his own was "Feet".

We wanted to give our second child her mother's name rather than mine, but it wasn't legal to do this in Belgium so she has mine. The added benefit is that mine is only four letters long whilst hers is looonnnnggggg.

In Switzerland the names automatically get concatenated with a hyphen so, in my children's Swiss passports they are Child Fathersname-Mothersname while, in their British passports they're just Child Fathersname.

Is it true that in CH a childs name must be approved by the local clerk or mayor? Friends of ours from Toronto moved to CH in the 90's and have had kids since. If you think Canada is full of rules and regulations, they have nothing on CH.

Don't know but be careful about what you call your child as they may not get the birthday cake greeting they want: http://www.smh.com.au/news/specials/...189675703.html

Possibly but we didn't have a problem registering a child with a strange name so they're pretty liberal, at least in Fribourg, in Zug or Apenzell it might be another story. There isn't a list of acceptable names in the way they have in France.

In some ways. Certainly the system of "place of domicile" and the related tax issues can be seen as bureaucratic but in social matters it's a more liberal country - eating, drinking, smoking, matters dealing with the quality of life, are less regulated. It's both shockingly efficient and slightly frightening that getting a new Swiss passport takes ten minutes, even if you're abroad and you've lost the old one. The government knows who you are and where you are.

So now you're called Anne, eh!

This is incorrect. Article 160 of the "Swiss Civil Law book" quite clearly states that by default the name of the groom shall become the name of the married couple. However the bride may _state_ that she wants to have her name put before to that family name.

The original text is here:
http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/210/a160.html
a close translation is:
http://translate.google.com/translat...istory_state0=

There is one exemption which is in Article 30. When the bride applies for her name to become the family name and there are circumstances which support that request, then the authorities have to grant said request. This has to be done prior to marriage though.
http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/210/a30.html


Thank you.

In Belgium they have a list of "official" names too, but they're really liberal. As long as it's not stupid. They have to be with all the weird and novel names from immigrants.

"Automatically" as in "by custom", "usually". Something can be automatic without it being required. I suppose most people chose hyphenation. making it a de facto standard.

actually, at least the german speaking part of switzerland there is a common rule behind the hyphenation. if the wife jane jones takes on her husband john smith's name as her family name she will become jane smith-jones but will usually be referred to as jane smith. if she chooses to take on her husbands name but gives priority to her maiden name she will be jane jones smith...