While my partner Hannah and I prepared to get married (and even before), the question of what last name we would take, if any, came up. It didn’t feel right for either of us to take each other’s last names. We did want to share a last name, so each of us keeping our own isn’t something we wanted. Hyphenating them was ridiculously long. We tried to create a new name using some combination of parts of both of our last names, but Opison and Thompheimer sounded silly. So, eventually we started talking about the idea of choosing a new last name for us to share moving forward, and of all the options, this one feels the most right to us.
The one we chose was Hearth (it rhymes with Darth). We spent a lot of time considering various last names, including trying to combine our last names. We thought about where names come from in the first place—jobs, attributes, fathers’ first names, that kind of thing. It’s interesting research if you’re interested.
Hearth was one of the first names we considered. It means fireplace, the center of the home, and family. It falls into the “describes attributes” category. We want it to tell people that we’re welcoming, accepting, and warm. We host people at our house for meals and for TV shows and parties. Hearth means all of that to us.
It means to us that we’re creating something new together.