Should you choose a portmanteau surname?

Isn't it strange when you learn about one particular thing and it starts cropping up everywhere? The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is real and it happens to me all the time, but maybe that's because I spend my life on the internet reading pretty much everything that hits my eyeballs. A Twitter friend of mine recently married the love of his life and in the process, they both chose to shuffle their surnames together like a deck of lovely cards. I thought it was a beautiful gesture, especially given that their resulting name ended up being so pretty. True to the principles of Baader-Meinhof, they appeared in The Pool this week, in a piece where the topic of portmanteau surnames was carefully turned over.  Using Chris O'Dowd and Dawn O'Porter's snuggly marriage as the masthead example of this modern phenomenon, the piece glowed with illuminating information. It turns out more young people than ever are eschewing tradition in favour of finding a new surname that's neither a compromise nor an imposition. It makes sense - not everybody feels close to their family name enough to keep it forever, and even if they do, they might feel like a change anyway. Weddings aren't the millennial dream anymore, but there are still those of us who view it as a grand event to usher in a new stage of life. So why not figure out a new name to share it with together?

Except, when I tried it myself, it didn't work out so well.

Mayher?

Tatler?

TETHER?

Tom's not super convinced by the convention and if I'm honest, I'm not sure I am either now that I've written it out in my fancy notebook.

Traytham? Sounds a bit like a fishing village or a commercial biscuit brand. I think it needs more thought.