Double-Barrelled Surnames
Double surnames became more popular in the Victorian era
During the 19th century the use of multiple or ‘double-barrelled’ surnames began to become more common. In earlier times the surname of the other family, usually the mother’s, was given as a forename. Usually, this was to perpetuate a family name that could have died out in the absence of male heirs. Sometimes it was to show the union of two important families.
Many double-barrelled names are written without a hyphen, which can cause confusion – for example, prime minister David Lloyd George and the composer
Ralph Vaughan Williams. Rather than changing one family name for another, both were used perhaps eventually becoming hyphenated.
Several old British families have triple-barrelled names. In 1972, George Jerzy Heronim Bank, formerly Georgius Heronimus Bankowski, changed his name again, to Georgius Heronimus de BankowRitterbank-Bankau.
The trend for hyphenating surnames decreased as they became associated with a degree of pretentiousness, however, in more recent times their use has grown again as parents opt to give both surnames to their children.