Surnames are important to us. We are admonished, as children, to "remember who you are" and not to disgrace our family's name. If you are blessed with an unusual surname, you instinctively know that, should you get into trouble, everyone is likely to know who your parents are. And those same people spell their surname as a matter of course after pronouncing it. Women tend to think of the combination of a number of surnames with her given name when contemplating marriage. When a baby is born, given names are carefully weighed in relationship to the child's surname. Even acronyms need to be considered. When we embark on the search for our family history, it is our own surname that we tend to follow first...
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