Monday, May 15, 2006

Quadruple-Barrelled

It's one thing to be a young lady saddled with the family name Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie.
And another still to have 4 Christian names: Mary Rosemary Marie-Gabrielle, in which grouping I detect a slight redundancy. Must have taken years to memorise.

Then the poor thing, the daughter of Archibald Ralph Montagu-Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Wharncliffe and Lady Maud Lillian Elfreda Mary Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, went and married a looowly baronet.
In Wales..Llannelli, to be precise.

I can almost guarantee that I will not be Googled for this information.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why would a young blogger from the empire hide her (from all appearances) beauty from the world?

-L.

Anonymous said...

Maybe one of the attractions of the lowly baronet was to exchange her many surnames for a single one?

Olivia said...

-L - ah, I see you have followed me from Meander's blog.
I'm not hiding...there's a photo further down this page!

Rox - no, she only reduced it by half (to Mansel-Lewis)

Leilouta said...

Here is another confusing one : Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Faisal ibn Turki ibn Abdallah Al Saud :)

Olivia said...

Oh is that the Saudi King? Just name all the ancestors why not?

Anonymous said...

I must admit, I am glad that my parents gave me a first name and that's it. short and sweet (but my last name is a bit long)hehehehe

Vanessa

Olivia said...

Vee - people have problems with both our last names. They need to stop and read, really.
And you have no middle name, haha! :P

Anonymous said...

yeah, but I gave myself one. But it's unofficial.
V.

MattJ said...

[pedantry]
Think you'll find it's Llanelli [/pedantry] hehe.

I have two words for these silly surnamed people. deed poll.

Olivia said...

Vee - yes, so missie you still don't have one :P

Matt - oops, I knew that, no wonder it looked wrong.

Olivia said...

Oh look, i spelled Fitzwilliam wrong too.

Both to be corrected.

Anonymous said...

Uh... I think you have a stalker.

You know I have problems with my surname everywhere but German speaking countries. And having been in the German part of CH when I was little, I was used to people knowing how to pronouce/spell my surname right away, so I never got over poeple not knowing instinctively how to spell it.

But then in primary school my friends called me Becky, which does not exist in Italian, and that used to get ALL kinds of spellings!

Olivia said...

Steli - I know, I am worried. Your blog is too good to be lost.

But anyway, I wanted to let you know I'm glad you are joining the football team at work. (Or did I dream that too?)
I had lots of unusual dreams last night, including one in which I caught a bullet with my ear.


Rebecca - now that I've deleted my spam, your comment looks funny :)

Hm! Honestly, in today's multicultural societies and global travel, how can people still have difficulty with names?
Yours isn't even that hard!
Romanian, now that's another matter...

michelle said...

stelli!

I know...ur blog...gone...ekkk

Anonymous said...

Roxandra's is doubtless the tough one.
Yeah but the "dt" is counter-intuitive, as is the "b", apparently. And to Italians, the "GE" is pronounced differently as well, so there.
But then you're is entirely straight forward, so there you go, people are just conditioned by habit I suppose

Olivia said...

Rebecca - No, Rox's is the easiest Romanian name I've ever seen.

I can definitely see why Italians would have trouble with yours.

You wouldn't believe what they come up with for mine. I don't usually help them, I feel mean and I wait for them to actually read it with their eyes before they address me.

Steli - pauvre pauvre garcon! Aujourd'hui il ne marche encore?
Did you ask Blogger for help?

The barrels only count if they are hyphenated.
The French do this too, they just add "de" everywhere, right?

Olivia said...

Wooohooooo! Are you off to reclaim your kingdom now?

I've been neglecting my empire a bit, lately. :)

She is just as I say, the daughter of blah blah and the wife of blah blah, and she is quite old now.
C'est ca.