DEAR ABBY: My daughter is expecting a child soon and plans to use our surname because her husband's name is foreign and could be interpreted to mean something naughty in English. She wants to spare her child the embarrassment of being teased when she gets to school.
There is an uproar over this among the grandparents. Our son-in-law says it's OK with him. Is this now an accepted practice, or is it something new? –- DESPERATE GRANDMA
DEAR GRANDMA: It's something relatively new. It started when women began hyphenating their names and adding them to their husband's. Some husbands also began hyphenating their names to coincide with the wife's.
As your letter proves, there is more than one answer to the question, "What's in a name?" –- pride, tradition, social standing, money or misery, depending on what the name is.