Well, In Quebec the majority of women keep their names, although nowadays the majority or marriages are "common-law" as well, thus there are some areas of the province where you can find Pierre-Alexis Perrault-Bertrand-Cote-Tremblay

I have a sister who insists she'll only marry if he takes her name.
Myself, I'm gonna keep mine, although the neighbour kids can call me Mrs. So-and-so if they like....
Kids, well, i guess they get their father's, although, at this point in my life, I expect i'd be single when I have kids.(ok, it's just a desire that I want my kids to have my name - I love the history in my name - in fact I went to an Acadian museum back in May and learned lots more about ancestors [there were only 3 men who came over from Europe with my name, so we're all descendants from one of em])

What about men who are permanently estranged from their parents, or who want to remove themselves from their families of origin? Is a name change okay then?

I already have a hyphenated name, so the concept of hyphenating is no problem for me. When I get married, I'll keep my mom's maiden name (the first part of the hyphenated name) and take on my husband's name for the second part. I went to legally change my name to the hyphenated version because on my mom's side there are no boys to carry on the name (and it's a pretty uncommon last name because of its spelling), so as the oldest grandchild I took on the name (and also it sounded better with my dad's last name than with my cousins' last name). This is something I will talk about with my husband...as for hyphenating children's names, I don't know if I will or not....if I can work the family name into either the first name or middle name, I might just leave children's name as "Bobby Hisname". But I can tell you, a hyphenated name as a child will not scar you for life. I'm pretty normal, if I do say so myself...:D

My maiden surname was a mouthful, so I was more than happy to add on my husband's Irish and easy-to-pronounce last name.

When I was born, my parents couldn't agree on a middle name, so I never had one. My maiden name is now my middle name, I use both on a daily basis (a la Hillary Rodham Clinton) and it couldn't have worked out more nicely for me. :)

I'm down w/ the hyphenated surname.

hyphenating is ok as long as it sounds good

a guy should not take the woman's name

taking your maiden name as your middle name is always a good way. that's what my mom did.

i will probably take my husbands name, without the hyphenation unless his name sounds funny with just my name. then i would try the hyphenation.

I'm hypenated, but I did something a little different. My husband's name is first them my maiden name. Most people do it the other way, but I hated the way the names sounded that way. An added bonus is when names are in alpha order we are together :D We confuse the heck out of people, because when I introduce myself as Eclipse HisLastName-MaidenName, people want to call him Mr. MaidenName, which cracks me up! When telemarketers do that he'll usually say "THat's my wife's father and he doesn't life here!" People at work call me my the hypenated name, but they are always confusing it, I guess because both names start with the same letter. I used my Maiden name at work after I got married because I thought it would be easier. Funny thing, when people heard I was getting or had gotten married they immediately said "What's your new name?" When I said I wasn't changing I got the strangest looks! People thought that was the strangest thing.

It also bothers me when I call, say my bank and tell them my name. Folks automatically want to call me either Mrs HisLastName or Mrs MaidenName. WRONG on both accounts! It's Mrs. HisLastName-MaidenName. I do let the folks at church call me by his last name only though!

People told me that I would get tired of writing both names, but 7 years later I haven't yet! :D

hyphenated
 

I haven't legally switched my name to my husbands.

I currently hyphenate my name because I have published scientific papers in my research.

And my bill collectors are too stupid to figure out how to type the correct name, so I just us my maiden name.

But if my husband and I have children, they will have his last name... I'm fine with that.

I think this is a very personal issue, and can only be decided on a case to case basis. Since my last name is one of those immigration mistakes, I have no real ties to it. When Mr. honeychile & I marry, I'll be honeychile Christine Egan.

The genealogist in me insists that I do it that way! ;)

I don't see why not!

I just thought of a circumstance in which I wouldn't change my last name.

What if I married a guy with the last name Facquelyn? Then I'd be Jacquelyn Facquelyn. Not acceptable.

kinda like Julia Gulia in the Wedding Singer???:D

my senior english teacher in high school kept her last name. Why? because if she hadn't her name would have been Karen Carin. That is where i would draw the line.

It would be a dream come true if future Mr Sigmagrrl took my last name....I'd love that!

I'm with you on that, Jacquelyn - if I'd married a man whose last name really sounded awful with my first name, I would have either kept my maiden name or discussed with him the idea of changing both our last names to a new name.

I was lucky though - even though my husband's last name is one of "those" names that very few first names go with, mine goes great. Maybe it was a sign! :) But picking our kids' names will not be fun.........

Let's see... I know of someone who took her husband's name to become Carol Carroll.

I know of someone else who wanted to name his daughter Selena. His wife talked him out of it by pointing out that their last name was Sullivan and this poor girl would have gone through childhood as "Silly Sally Sully."

Oh, and I used to work with a woman whose last name was Goodman. She was engaged to a man whose last name was also Goodman (no relation). That must have been... interesting to explain...

I will use my fiance's name socially, but I don't plan on legally changing anything. Socially I'll be Aimee mylastname hislasthame.

I absolutely plan to practice law under my maiden name (much to my FMIL's disappointment, I'm sure :rolleyes:). There are lots of attorneys in my family with this name, and it only seems right to carry it on. Plus, my father is deceased, and I'd like to keep his name as a part of me.