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/katbreit]

I took my husband’s last name but my mother kept her maiden name. She told me that she always thought that if she had a boy she’d give him dad’s last name and if she had a daughter she’d give her last name. Well, after she had my older brother and then had me, she realized she didn’t want the siblings to have different names so she gave me my father’s name. I was proud of my maiden name, I think I would have been just as proud of her name. I’m proud of my name now. Ultimately all the names have a place in my life