■"No Hyphens, Please: Germany Tells Parents To Keep Names Simple; Young Leonhard's Parents Fight One of Many Rules; No Lenins and Schnuckis," by Mary Jacoby, Wall Street Journal, 12 October 2005, p. A1.

Germany won't allow hyphenated last names for kids.

Why? What if a woman marries a man and hyphenates her last name, then wants her kids to share her hyphenated name? And then those kids marry other kids from similar hyphenated last-name families? I mean, do their kids end up with four last names all in a row? And what of their kids? And so on and so on?

You want to know why the Germans lost two world wars. This is a big clue!