What value is the hyphen in a double barrelled surname?

[elliot]

What value is the hyphen in a double and triple barrelled surnames?
They seem to be changed at will, even in the ex-Royals.
I now disregard them as they mess up my attempts to list families alphabetically.

[Nick_Ips]

Helps clarify which names are the surname and which are the given name(s).

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, could be Andrew Mountbatten, son of Mr & Mrs Windsor

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, most likely Andrew, son of Mr & Mrs Mountbatten-Windsor

[Milliepede]

As someone with a double barrelled surname I never disregard it.

It shouldn’t mess up an alphabetical list.  List by the first letter of the first surname the same as you would any other surname.

[Biggles50]

I have relatives with a double barrelled surname and found out how and when it occurred.

The typical Victorian practice of using the surname of a relative as a middle name suddenly gained a - in the next generation and that continued until the present day.

As it happens a work colleague had a double barrelled surname and when asked he said it is a combo of his and his Wife’s surnames that they adopted when they married.

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Many years ago when I was a junior staff member, our librarian was sometimes visited by a scholarly clergyman (those were the days!) who had a double barrelled name. More recently I discovered that he and his wife, married in 1917, were both graduates and joined their surnames.

[Andrew Tarr]

'Value' ? I don't know, but it is very common (in the correct sense) these days, especially with footballers, often of Caribbean descent.  I suspect it may indicate that parents are unmarried and chose to bestow both their surnames on the children.  Our aristocracy has occasionally opted for triple-barrelling, as in Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, possibly to keep hold of all the upper-class connections.

Of course the habit of carrying forward both parents' surnames is normal in Spanish families, but they don't bother with hyphens.

[Aguella]

I have a double barrelled surname, as do quite a few of my relatives. I've got at least three examples of two double barrelleds marrying each other! In each instance, the children simply took the father's surname(s).

I don't see any issues caused - as Milliepede says, double-barrelled surnames simply fall in the alphabetical list according to the first letter, just as any other name would.

[LizzieL]

As said earlier, I would index alphabetically by the first letter of the first part of the surname. I've known some couples who, when they marry, the wife double barrels her surname with her husband, but the husband retains his original surname.
And have you tried searching on FH sites for a double barrelled surname? FreeBMD and FindMyPast do vey well, Ancestry ignores the first part even if you tick exact.

[LizzieL]

While researching my Derham ancestors, I found a number of people suddenly popped up with the Gaymer-Derham surname. I couldn't find a marriage for a Gaymer / Derham couple which I guessed should be pre 1910, because that was the birth year of the oldest person with the double barrelled surname. Nor could I find a birth for him in 1910. But I had found death record, records of two marriages and record of death of what I thought was his second wife. It turned out he actual had three marriages, the first time he married in the surname Derham, so the lady I thought was his second wife was actually his third and he had double barrelled his name between the first and second marriages. I did read on-line somewhere a long time ago, that when he joined up for war service he had a very good friend with the surname Gaymer, and they agreed if either were killed the other would take his surname. But I can't find that article now.