Great.

When my wife and I married in 2001, we adopted a new surname composed of fragments of our previous names.

She was Tlumacki — a Polish name. I was Head. We took the “l-u-m” from her name and the “e-a” from mine, to make “Lumea.” We pronounce it LEW-mee-uh.

We were living in New York City, at the time. And, happily for us, this option actually was —and is — written into statute in New York State.

Alas, DMV was a bitch — for me.

The New York Times thought it was pretty cool, though.