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Rosie Tuckwell

A short bit of wit and wisdom by Ogden Nash tells us that: “Marriage is the alliance of two people, one who never remembers birthdays and the other who never forgets them.” Perhaps this is true in all marriages; it is so in our home! 

Another interesting feature of marriage in the UK is that, until recently, brides have tended to take on their husbands’ names. Nowadays, of course, more and more women wish to retain a link to their maiden name. But in order to keep their maiden name, they may need to change their title from Mrs to Ms, for example, and there would be no need for a deed poll. In fact, social titles are not detailed in UK passports.  

In my country (Uruguay), a woman preserves her maiden names. Two, to be precise: father’s surname followed by mother’s surname. So, by assuming my husband’s surname, I am a bit of an outcast in my own country because my Uruguayan documents carry my maiden names forever. This was not so bad in the UK (where the Passport Office has had my records for the past 40 years). However, in the past few years, the declaration on the passport renewal form requires to confirm the existence of a second passport, which I did when I came to renew my British passport in October.  This process became an upheaval, the length of which is Kafkaesque in nature. The UK Passport Office now requires my country’s passport to have exactly the same name as my UK document. If the Uruguayan passport was going to be renewed to my married name, I would have to travel to Paris where the Consulate Office for passport renewals for the República Oriental del Uruguay is located.  My British passport being renewed, I would then have had to re-enter the UK with my Uruguayan passport. Immigration control would then immediately send me back to Paris as I would not qualify for EU status (I could actually hold an Italian passport because of my ancestry but, boy, that would be a whole different story!)

Of course, I did not travel to Paris to change my maiden names in my Uruguayan passport. Several exchange letters between the Uruguayan Embassy and the Passport Office resolved the situation; but unfortunately the correspondence categorically stated that I will forever remain María del Rosario Casera Sánchez in one country and Maria del Rosario Tuckwell in the other! Of course, you all know me as just “Rosie”; as a child I enjoyed (la) “Rosi”, (la) “Rosarito” and (la) “Charito” (the definite article ‘la’ (the) being used to distinguish me from the three other Rosies in our small town!). My town is looking forward to the return of its little ‘Rosi’ next April! 

PS: Needless to say, the situation would not have arisen had I been a male applicant… Maybe I should sue!! 

-Rosie Tuckwell