Tired of endless double-barrelled surnames, UK registrars have called for common sense to prevail.
A recent trend for both partners in a marriage to keep their family names and put them together is causing complications in the registrars' record keeping.
Said Petula Blender, Chief Registrar at a posh London borough: "You have the situation these days where a young lady is reluctant to give up her maiden name, so she and her hubby put their names together. It also gives them something of a faux high-class gloss, doesn't it?
"So newly-weds Mr and Mrs Probate-Clunderbunk have a couple of little ones themselves. Little Billy Probate-Clunderbunk grows up and wants to marry Mary Froodle-Torpedo.
"Mary is so proud of her parents' moniker that the story is repeated and we get a Mr and Mrs Probate-Clunderbunk-Froodle-Torpedo.
"What happens when Mrs and Mrs Probate-Clunderbunk-Froodle-Torpedo's little girl grows up and falls in love with Damien Locksmith-Menwith-Thompson-Musgrave? I'll tell you... we have a next generation saddled with Probate-Clunderbunk-Froodle-Torpedo-Locksmith-Menwith-Thompson-Musgrave.
"And so it goes on ad-nauseum until it takes several hours just to read the names out in the ceremony.
"Where will it end, I ask you?"
