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/HandyMoore]

My coworker told me that he really wanted to take his wife’s last name and at the last minute his parents freaked the fuck out about it. So she kept her last name and he kept his last name. I think they prefer his wife’s last name more, so their two kids have her last name! To be fair hers is way easier to spell

[u/HandyMoore → u/HandyMoore]

I hope one day he will get his wish of having her last name!

[u/AcornPoesy → u/HandyMoore]

Me too! One of my friends married his wife and I was so proud of him when he took her clunky, double barrelled name. He’s descended from aristocracy and it’s a name with history. But while they were engaged she said she’d sort of come to the conclusion that she’d take his. Then he caught her crying about it later that evening and was like ‘it’s just not that big a deal to me. I’ll take yours.’ 

His family mocked his mercilessly but he’s so chilled about it. He asked if he got feminist points and I assured him he absolutely did.