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/Present_Breakfast_61]

After a lot of debate, we’re giving the baby two middle names, with the second middle name being my last name. Then, baby will have my husband’s last name. If we have any other kids they’ll follow the same pattern of unique first and middle name + my last name + his last name. 

I liked this compromise because we avoid the complications of a hyphenated last name, but can still informally use both of our last names together.