Name blending, meshing, or melding is the practice of combining two existing names to form a new name.[1] An example is the combination of the surnames Dresser and McLoughlin to form the new surname of game designer Clay Dreslough. It is most commonly performed upon marriage. According to Western tradition, the wife normally adopts the husband's surname upon marriage. Name blending is an alternative practice that attempts to assign equal cultural value to each partner's surname. In November 2012, it was reported that 800 couples in the United Kingdom had opted to blend their surnames thus far that year, primarily among "younger couples in their twenties or early thirties", with this being a leading reason for the issuance of Deed Polls to change names.[1]
Since the early 2000s, it has also become common for celebrity couples to be given blended names in the media, usually made by combining elements of the given name of the people involved.[2] This practice has been adopted by shippers within fandoms to describe relationships between fictional characters.[3]
Couples give many reasons for choosing to blend their surnames.
Surname blending can also occur in multiple steps, as when a double-barrelled is combined and condensed in later generations.[8]
In the case of celebrity couples, where the names are chosen by the media (or arise from the public) rather than reflecting a choice by the couple, it has been suggested that the assignment of a nickname makes fans feel closer to the couple.[2] The popularity of celebrity supercouple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez from 2002 to 2004 and from 2021 to present (they broke up then rekindled their relationship over a decade later) resulted in their being known by the portmanteau "Bennifer" (for Ben and Jennifer) to the media, as well as to fans using the name combination.[9][10] The term Bennifer itself became popular, and started the trend of other celebrity couples being referred to by the combination of each other's first names, as with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ("Brangelina"),[10][11] and Kanye West and Kim Kardashian ("Kimye").[2] Robert Thompson, director of the Centre for the Study of Popular Television, said "as silly as it sounds, this new tendency to make up single names for two people, like 'Bennifer' (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez) and 'TomKat' (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes), is an insightful idea'. 'Brangelina' has more cultural equity than their two star parts".[11]