Modern times; How do you decide your children's last names?

[xDarc]

It would have to be the double-barrel name.


If I get married I'm keeping my mother's second name and, seeing as I'll have carried them and pushed them out, my children will have my name.

Of course, they'll have two parents but it'd be cold day in hell before I have children that don't get my name.

That is certainly a good way to piss off the father of these potential children, as you're essentially saying he wouldn't have a say in it at all. Or is it just me that would be put-off by such an unwillingness to compromise?

I don't think I'd marry someone who would pull that hyphenated stuff on me. I've been dating my current girlfriend for a little over a year and this has already come up and been agreed upon.

 

[lordbuxton]

For a long time in western civilization it was customary for kids to be given their father's last name, due in part to the patrilineal lines of succession and inheritence of the times.

Nowadays, though, it is becoming increasingly common that women retain their maiden names rather than take their husbands, which I suspect would cause some confusion about what the two should name their children.

I've heard of having male children take their father's name and the female ones take their mother's, but I have also been told that more than a few families would prefer that all of their children have the same last name.

I've also heard of taking the mother's and father's names and hyphenating them, which is all well and good for one generation, but seems a little unrealistic in the long-term if widely adopted. For example, Mr. Francis and Mrs. Johnson have a son, Mr Francis-Johnson. He then goes on to have a child, named Mr. Francis-Johnson-Micheals-Brown, who then fathers Mr. Francis-Johnson-Micheals-Brown-Smith-Joseph-Lee-Chan.

So how would you decide on your kids' names? Just adopt the father's name, same-sex parent's name, hyphenated name, or some other solution I didn't think of?

Becoming more common?

I have never heard of any children having anything other than their father's surname, and you know what, there is nothing wrong with that.

-edit
Can you prove it has become more common with statistics?

 

[Don Savik]

Oh god please don't torture your children with hyphen last names. They're ugly and frustrating to write. Just...one or the other please. Think of the long term here.

 

[Loreley]

My mother and stepfather decided at random, which I thought rather fair: if it was a girl (which it was), it would have my mother's last name, and if it was a boy, it would have my stepfather's last name. Of course, I have a different last name than my mother, my stepsister has a different last name than my stepfather, so our doorbell panel is already so full of names we might as well have added a hyphen one to it for my little sister.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Let the parents decide amongst themselves which surname is kept.

I don't have any particular attachment to my surname so I wouldn't mind giving it up if I were to get married. However, if the person I were getting married to had a really terrible surname I would expect him (and our hypothetical children) to adopt mine. If a couple can't decide which name to pass on they probably shouldn't be getting married/ having children. I'm glad that it's gradually becoming less accepted that the man's name ought to be adopted by default.

 

[MetalDooley]

Well If I ever get married(unlikely)then my wife will have an easy choice - take my surname or keep her own.No fucking hyphenating

If we had kids(again unlikely)and assuming she kept her own surname then male kids would take my surname and female kids would take hers.No fucking hyphenating

If it was a case of having kids unmarried then it's the same situation as above.No fucking hyphenating

 

[DugMachine]

Well I always tell my father I don't want kids but he wants grandkids so badly. If by some chance I do have a kid (which i'm sure will happen at some point, even though I don't want to ><), that kid will have my last name so that he carries on my fathers legacy or whatever prideful crap he thinks about our name. Either that or double barreled, doesn't really matter to me anyways.