Surname law matronym from the name of a parent or parent-in-law; these possibilities are not necessarily open to native Icelanders. Reza Shah Pahlavi ordered Iranians to adopt Western style surnames in place of old Islamic names and titles during his reign. A law in Japan dating from 1896 requires a married couple to have a common surname. Most commonly it was the wife who took her husband's name. In 2011, this law was challenged as unconstitutional on gender equality grounds, but the Supreme Court of Japan upheld the law in 2015. Prussia tasked the implementation of surnames to E. T. A. Hoffmann.
The Married Couple The Married Couple "The Married Couple" (German: "Das Ehepaar") is a 1922 short story by Franz Kafka. It was published posthumously in "Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer" (Berlin, 1931). The first English translation by Willa and Edwin Muir was published by Martin Secker in London in 1933. It appeared in "The Great Wall of China. Stories and Reflections" (New York City: Schocken Books, 1946). The story is about a businessman who is desolate. He becomes bored in his day-to-day affairs at the office and decides to contact some of his customers personally. One of them, N., is an old man