Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 26, 2019

“How do you spell that?”

They could always go with a hyphenated name.

Glad to see BD’s dressed for the wedding. In his formal helmet. And hopefully, shorts. .

Um … what’s the point with the sun mirror if B.D. is wearing the chinstrap with the helmet?

So call the kid “Jay”. I knew a kid called “J.D.”.

Brian Dowling is the original inspiration for B.D.

I wonder if ‘D’ is a legal last name. I mean like passport legal. I suppose it could be.

Dowling

I am taken back to the M*A*S*H episode when Hawkeye is trying to get BJ to tell him whet the B J stood for. Turned out he was named after his parents: father Jay and mother Bea.

His buddies in the Army must have had fun with that name.

OOooo, we got a little bump going.

The way pregnant mothers dress now, that bump would be wearing a skin tight knit top pulled over it. Or, maybe not…

Well, there’s Sandra D, and Ruby D, and Joey D (and the Starlighters); the kid has some respectable relatives to share the last name with. (There’s also the English branch of the family, with Dave D and Kiki D.)

You never looked better, Boops.

It’s the 21st Century now. B.D can take Boopsie’s last name and use her name for the kid! Uhhh, what IS Boopsie’s last name, ‘Ra?’

Like G. Callan, B.D. Is his name.

I have a friend who solved that problem (She Kept her Last Name when she got married, for professional reasons) by taking Half of Her family name and Half of His which they combined to give the children a last name that reflected both parents. No Hyphens. Just a “Shared” last name.

The hospital was a bit hesitant, but she persuaded the bureaucrats that it was their right to name their own babies.

Dowling