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tity by giving up the name I grew up with."
The couple officially changed their name to
Debrody in 1990 when Ara was pregnant with
their first child. Bob says it wasn't too hard to
give up the name Bob Smith. "In college,
whenever I made reservations at a resaurant
I'd make them in another name. In art class-
es I always signed another name to my work
— it was usually something long that some-
body would have to ask how to spell."

The couple — who had a second child in
1991 — is quite happy with their chosen name.
But Bob's mother, understandably, wasn't so
positive, particularly because her son was
born Robert Smith, Jr. (his father had died
years earlier). "When I told her that I wanted
to change it, she told me it was up to me but
that she didn't think it was right," recalls Bob,
an electrical engineer. "I didn't see what the
big deal was, because I have two sisters who
are both married and they took their hus-
bands' names. I never understood the differ-
ence between a woman taking her husband's
name and a man taking his wife's name. Be-
sides, my grandfather had changed his name
to Smith from a Polish last name, so I felt like
it had only been in the family for three gen-
erations."
Among those who consider hyphenating
their names, length is often a primary con-
sideration. After all, hyphenated last names
often confront a social bias: Forms are rarely
long enough to accommodate them, and com-
puters are often incapable of recognizing hy-
phens. So long names with a dash often get
massacred. Some couples also consider the
possibility of their children marrying others
with hyphenated names — in which case
they'd have four last names. In some Euro-
pean countries, hyphenated names carry a
certain cachet, conferred, in part, by the so-
cial circles in which they are common. But
while names like Burke-Edwards are one
thing, longer, ethnically diverse appellations
such as Capelluti-Rubinstein, are quite an-
other. Some hyphenated names become
tongue-twisters that many couples would
rather not have to deal with — or infict on their
children.
Perhaps that's why, all else being equal,
some decide against hyphenation for aes-
thetics' sake. As Lisa Rosenbaum, an account
supervisor at Ann Arbor's Harris Advertising
who in December married a man with the last
name of Soverinsky, puts it, "Rosenbaum is
three syllables and Soverinsky is four. To-

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