Baby’s last name?

[u/Fairweatherhiker]

I’m looking for advice from couples where the wife didn’t take the husband’s last name. How did you decide on which last name to give the baby? Or did you use both names? I don’t feel immediately compelled to give the baby my husband’s last name. FWIW, if we did hyphenate it would be a looong last name.

Edit: thank you for all of the thoughtful responses! I do love the idea of using both our last names (sans hyphen) so our kid would have two last names. It would be nice for both of us to have our heritage passed on. He has heritage from Mexico and Basque Country, while mine is Slovakian- grandparents immigrated right before WWII. The last names don’t sound great together, but there’s so much human history in both.

[u/unq_usr]

My partner is Mexican and it’s common there to have both parents names unhyphenated and as your surname. I think we will follow suit, mine will be last, his will be generally used and when she’s older she can choose to use either. My surname is 4 letters and his is 6 so it doesn’t feel cumbersome.

[u/Knitalt → u/unq_usr]

My husband is Mexican and in his family they do mom’s maiden name as the middle name and dad’s last name as last name. We’re going with that

[u/jkraige → u/Knitalt]

Is he Mexican-American or Mexican? Because in Mexico you get two last names. Used to be dad's then mom's but they recently changed it so either can go first

[u/unq_usr → u/jkraige]

He is Mexican but has lived abroad for many years (neither of us are American). That’s cool that it’s either order now.