Triple Marriage Threat

Jeff Winkler | May 6, 2009

Michael Savage has been banished from England. It's a good thing his name isn't Michael Wiener-Farnsworth-Savage, or he'd be banned in Germany, too. Well...sorta. From the WTF files:

Germany's Constitutional Court upheld a ban on triple surnames on Tuesday. The ruling denied an appeal from a Munich couple who wanted to combine their last names to give the wife the moniker Thalheim-Kunz-Hallstein.

People must keep their surnames to a maneageable length in order to secure the name's power of identification, the Karlsruhe-based court said, adding that couples have a "large range of variation possibilities" for combining their names.

The ban on double-hyphenated (or longer) surnames began in 1994. According to daily Süddeutche Zeitung on Tuesday, the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), fought hard for the ban.

But some politicians from the centre-left Social Democrats, including Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries also supported the ban, saying such long names were impractical.

Critics say the ban infringes on the rights of married couples and is much more stringent than name laws in other countries. Others have said that allowing longer last names wouldn't inspire most Germans to actually choose multiple-hyphen monikers.

The court already ruled against appeals to the law in 2002 and 2004, Süddeutche Zeitung reported.

Germany is also known for its strict rules for determining the appropriateness of first names for children.

What did these two matrimonial monsters have to say for themselves?

"We're married...and we wanted to show it."

More Reason coverage of marriage here. In 2007, Managing Editor Jesse Walker pointed the way to a good New York Times column about "Taking Marriage Private."

Comments

|5.6.09 @ 2:38PM|#

I wonder how the hyphen ban will go over in Schleswig-Holstein, Baden-Württemberg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz and Saxony-Anhalt?

Kevin

|5.6.09 @ 2:39PM|#

Of course it would be the Germans who object to stringing together a bunch of unrated words into a single noun or verb.

And I thought this would be about the slippery slop of gay marriage leading to polygamy or maybe tripartate marriage.

|5.6.09 @ 2:46PM|#

Gesundheit.

EJM|5.6.09 @ 2:49PM|#

Michael Savage has been banished from England.

And, not surprisingly, he's threatening legal action and calling for a boycott of the UK--while his syndicator is comparing him to Churchill.

Tacos mmm...|5.6.09 @ 2:52PM|#

Wonder how the aristocracy is taking this, with their tendancy to add half a dozen additional names between Karl and von.

|5.6.09 @ 2:55PM|#

but this begs the serious question

what of of Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?

EJM|5.6.09 @ 2:58PM|#

And I thought this would be about the slippery [slope] of gay marriage leading to polygamy or maybe [tripartite] marriage.

That's what I was thinking, too--especially given what's been going on today in Maine and New Hampshire.

Elemenope|5.6.09 @ 3:02PM|#

As a person who was given a hyphenated name by my parents, let me say that hyphens are the devil, and hyphenated names a scourge which ought to be purged from the Earth.

That is all.

Syd|5.6.09 @ 3:04PM|#

Yet another infringement on the rights of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (aka Windsor).

|5.6.09 @ 3:04PM|#

what of of Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?

He just wasn't that good of a composer.

Syd|5.6.09 @ 3:07PM|#

But Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache is still OK under the law.

Fluffy|5.6.09 @ 3:09PM|#

I'm not sure why a German would think that length made a word impractical.

Don't they basically make most of their words by combining three or four other words into a new word the length of an English paragraph? In that environment, how bad can a triple-hyphenated name really be?

Kyle|5.6.09 @ 3:24PM|#

This makes me laugh. My german originated name has 14 letters. Presumably, this would still be legal in germany, though Eue-Beck-Kohl (11 letters)would not.

¢|5.6.09 @ 3:35PM|#

couples have a "large range of variation possibilities" for combining their names

Thalheim-Kunz-Hallstein = Slamminalienkuntz

|5.6.09 @ 3:41PM|#

"""I'm not sure why a German would think that length made a word impractical."""

The name can't go beyond the size of the last name field in the government databases. ;-)

Jack Thread|5.6.09 @ 3:51PM|#

An expedition team which set sail from Plymouth on a 5,000-mile carbon emission-free trip to Greenland have been rescued by an oil tanker.
The team, which left Mount Batten Marina in Plymouth on 19 April in a boat named the Fleur, aimed to rely on sail, solar and man power on a 580-mile (933km/h) journey to and from the highest point of the Greenland ice cap.

The expedition was followed by up to 40 schools across the UK to promote climate change awareness.

But atrocious weather dogged their journey after 27 April, culminating with the rescue on 1 May after the boat was temporarily capsized three times by the wind.

In one incident Mr Stoddart hit his head and the wind generator and solar panels were ripped from the yacht.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8034027.stm

Eddie cucha catcha camma toe-s|5.6.09 @ 3:54PM|#

FUCK THIS SHIT.

JUST FUCK IT.

|5.6.09 @ 4:04PM|#

Who has the right to determine what your name will be? Not you, apparently.

|5.6.09 @ 4:15PM|#

This would never have happened if Malcolm Peter Brian Telescope Adrian Blackpool Rock Stoatgobbler John Raw Vegetable Brrroooo Norman Michael (rings bell) (blows whistle) Edward (sounds car horn) (does train impersonation) (sounds buzzer) Thomas Moo... (sings) "We'll keep a welcome in the..." (fires gun) William (makes silly noise) "Raindrops keep falling on my" (weird noise) "Don't sleep in the subway" (cuckoo cuckoo) Naaoooo... Smith, had been elected.

|5.6.09 @ 4:25PM|#

I'm shocked, shocked I say, to learn that Elemenope is not your given name.

Oh, and a big farkin ha ha ha to that emission free Greenland trip rescue by OIL TANKER! Sounds like Best of the Onion.

|5.6.09 @ 5:18PM|#

Given that German is known for nouns of stunning length like Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän, Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerk
bauunterbeamtengesellschaft and Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, they have a lot of nerve.

VM|5.6.09 @ 9:55PM|#

nOt a libertarian: well played.

Warren - very silly has had too many platform problems to vote for them!

Mike|5.7.09 @ 12:49AM|#

"As a person who was given a hyphenated name by my parents, let me say that hyphens are the devil, and hyphenated names a scourge which ought to be purged from the Earth."

I agree. If the married couple want to hyphenate their names, so be it, but nobody should make their kids deal with it. If the traditional way of taking the father's name is too sexist for you, then name the boys after the father and the girls after the mother--or just pick a totally new name, like Hayek.

Just for the record, I would not be a good libertarian if I didn't say I'm against this law. Can I still vote for the Slightly Silly Party?

Kreel Sarloo|5.7.09 @ 9:26AM|#

I know a number of blue water sailors who have weathered some pretty bad storms.

Rule number one when you got to sea in a sailboat. LEARN TO SAIL!!!!

|5.7.09 @ 1:59PM|#

Since UK examples have been found, I'd like to introduce you to a future Silly Party candidate.

He must be planning on visiting Germany, because he left the hyphen out of Spider-Man.

Kevin

lukas|5.7.09 @ 2:11PM|#

Germany also has this weird law where it says that a kid's gender must be obvious from its given name. Needless to say, that created huge headaches once immigrants showed up (Andrea is male in Italian, female in German) and names borrowed from other cultures or nicknames became popular.