Name game

Germany's constitutional court ruled that, when it comes to surnames, three (or more) is a crowd.

Married couples cannot combine their surname with their partner's name if one of them is already double-barrelled, the court decided. The verdict confirms a ruling handed down in 1994, and came in the case of a Munich-based couple.

The court found that the woman, a dentist whose last name is Thalheim, could not retain her name and add her husband's double-barrelled name, Kunz-Hallstein.

There goes John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt!

German naming laws are known to be strict, but it is increasingly common for couples to hyphenate their names when they marry. As a result of Tuesday's ruling this practice can continue, but only if the resulting name consists of no more than two hyphenated surnames.

But even if a surname trifecta is not allowed, rest assured: if a couple named Jingleheimer and Schmidt marry, they can still both become Jingleheimer-Schmidt. And they can name their child John Jacob. Which is funny, because that's my name, too. So whenever we go out, the people tend to shout ...