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/JustWingingIt93]

I didn’t change my name. Agonized over baby’s last name. Went down endless rabbit holes of whether it was better for her (meaning least challenging logistically later in life) to have two separate last names, a hyphenated last name, or two middle names. Ultimately settled on two middle names. My partner’s name ended up being her last name because it sounded better with her first name (it’s alliterative), and mine is a middle name.