Ampersand

[magid]

Some couples are always X & Y. Other couples are always Y & X. And some are ambidextrous, as it were. I keep wondering why that is. Who you know first? Who you know better? (Who you're related to?) Shorter name (in syllables) first? Is it partly situational? The one with a title first? Or just an elusively-defined "it sounds better that way"? (For bi-gender couples: Always man first? Always woman first?)

Comments

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Agh... you beat me to it. I was just in the middle of writing in response to magid's question above that we call some of them dimplebottoms and some of them Ramkosches.

Except the dimplebottoms actually do have the same last name.

And the Ramkosches don't call themselves married (do they?)

[bitty.livejournal.com]

And the Ramkosches don't call themselves married (do they?)

only in the self-referential "we're like an old married couple" way.

the dimplebottom

[magid.livejournal.com]

Each of them has a reasonably distinctive first name, so I almost never think of their last name as a way to refer to the two of them. I don't remember how long it was until I actually heard their last name, even. (I suspect I'm more likely to say "dimplebottoms".)