Let me start by saying that I have no issue with people who hyphenate their names. My wife does it, all while claiming that using my name is so very difficult. So you hyphenate it? It seems to me that some people seem to be comforted, as in part of their being comes from being hyphenated.
What really concerns me is all of these people who hyphenate being American. I am of German, Irish and Swedish heritage and I am very proud of my lineage but I am not a hyphenated American. I was born and raised here in the U.S.A. and though I have lived in Germany for a short period I am not a German-American. There are people who can rightly call themselves XXX-Americans. These are people who have emigrated to the US from elsewhere. If you were born here you are not an XXX-American, you are a plain old fashioned American. You can be of Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Irish, African, Egyptian, Lebanese, Japanese, Chinese or whatever heritage but if you were born here you are not XXX-American.
We have enough issues these days that separate us from each other. Everything from religion, to politics, to skin color to you name it seems to be something that will keep people apart. This absurd reliance on being an XXX-American should not be on the list.
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"I, Bill, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." - I originally took this oath in 1976, I don't believe that you can un-swear your oath.
My question with regard to hyphenation is what does the next generation do? Do they "hyphenate the hyphenation"? It seems to me that this will make lineage tracking all but impossible as some will hyphenate the hyphenation using the first part of the hyphenation and others will use the second part. And, some will go back to an un-hyphenated last name. Going down this road will obliterate the abilty to confidently track family trees, not to mention the length of space needed on forms and databases to store these "hyphenated hyphenations".
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