Does your wife use Filipino family name as middle name in UK passport?

Traditionally, Filipinos wear their wedding rings on their right hands, but there is no hard and fast rule about this. When they live in the West, they might opt to wear their rings on the left hand to avoid confusion.

I like the Filipino custom of a woman using her maiden name as her middle name, and her unmarried children following suit. It seems to me to be an idea that all nations could usefully adopt. It makes it nice and clear who is related to whom and how.

My wife has a double surname, her maiden surname and my surname. This is convenient as we live in Spain where all Spanish have two surnames.

I just use my one surname thus we have different surnames.

I changed my first and surname about 30 years ago. In UK one can do just that. There is no law which says one can or cannot. The name change can be registered by Deed Pole if one chooses. I did not.

In Spain husbands and wives do not have the same surname as women do not change their name upon marriage. ( changing one's name is Spain is not permitted even on marriage). There is no reason why one cannot do the same in UK.

In UK a woman can legally keep her maiden name, or indeed just like anyone, choose any name/s she wishes.

That is interesting: now we know where the Philippines custom comes from. It originated with the Spanish.

Great to know the origin, makes sense now, don't know why I didn't clock that earlier

Corina just discovered that my two sons have middle names (Alexander James, Charles Henry). She had given her son a middle name, but was surprised that I had done so.

When I changed my name about 30 years ago I chose to have just one name and one surname. As most of us hardly ever use any name other than our first name, a second, third etc seem pointless.

My reason for giving my sprogs a choice of two names was that they had a choice of ordinary type first names so if one had become deeply unfasionable by secondary school they had an option to use the other.

I have never quite forgiven my father for giving me a second name which was his father's first name. Or maybe I should blame John Cleese? At any rate, I would never inflict an unusual name on a child.

Very British names too

Why did you hide the fact that you had given them middle names?

Wasn't the name Sybil was often heard screaming was it?

Not sure what your mention of John Cleese was, but did you know:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cleese

His family's surname was originally Cheese, but his father had thought it was embarrassing and changed it when he enlisted in the Army during World War

As I repeatedly say, in UK one can change their name to almost anything just by doing it, as John Cleese’s father did.. The exceptions are that in doing so, one cannot infer a title, so one could not call themselves ‘Sir John Smith’, ‘King David Brown’ etc.

You know some interesting stuff about names John.

You have rumbled me.

My paternal grandfather, born in the 1870's, was named Basil Wilfred... at least I avoided the Wilfred bit.

I didn't hide it; I just referred to them as Alex and Charles, but today I showed Corina Alex's US Visa in his passport on Skype and she noticed the spare name!

My little problem is that "small k" - the stepsprog - was named by his mother "Krian Jypsy" and I think that had better be transmuted into "Kieran James" by the time he hits an English primary school (this September, we hope).

I think you would be doing your son a great service there for obvious reasons

I'm glad you avoided Wilfred, Harolddddddddd another famous TV programme, showing our age here

We were under Spanish occupation for 333 years. I for one have double Spanish surname.

My wife and her family and friends, as far as I know, have only one surname, but have a middle name which was their mother's surname. It is not a surname though, so Mary Smith (mother's surname) Gonzales, is known as Miss Gonzlaes.

This is unlike in Spain where everyone (Spanish that is ) has two surnames. The first surname of their mother and the first of their father. So Miss Smith Gonzales.

As I said, we had my wife’s passport changed, in manuscript, so that she has two surnames; her original surname and my surname. When it was renewed that stayed the same.
So e.g. Mrs Mary SMITH GONZALES, wife of John GONZALES