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Bride of Ralph’s Son to Be Lauren Lauren

Here comes the bride, her name is really snide

by
Marc Tracy
August 09, 2011
The happy couple last March.(Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
The happy couple last March.(Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

Lauren Bush—the granddaughter of George H.W. Bush and niece of George W. Bush—is marrying David Lauren, son of famed designer Ralph, next month at his family’s ranch in Telluride, Colorado. Is she planning to take her husband’s name? She is! The world will soon have Lauren Bush Lauren.

This is, obviously, absurd. Yet it would be equally absurd (well, nearly) to deny the young couple the right to marry each other. One solution a source has proposed would be a nice homage to family history: the couple should change the name back to what it was—Lifshitz. Ralph, recall, is a Jewish boy from the Bronx; the name was changed, moreover, not to hide its Jewishness but to hide the expletive within the name. And, really, is Lifshitz more obscene than Lauren Lauren?

All this talk of Ashkenazi heritage, of course, poses yet another question about the impending nuptials. The thought of a Jewish Bush—as in those Bushes—entices.

Laurens in Love [Page Six]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.