I guess for me, I think I would take my husband's name, unless it was something really horrible like "Poopkowsky" or something.
I suppose in someways, my maiden name is not really mine, it's my father's. The only name that is "mine" is my first name.
One thing I should mention. I worked for this guy and his wife kept her name. The kids had his surname. So for the longest time, I wrongly assumed that their mother was actually Wife #2 and their stepmother. I finally asked someone in the office quietly if he'd been married before, and had kids with Wife #1 and was told that no, he was only married to one person thus far in his life, but she'd kept her name and the kids took his name.
So, you see, dumb people like me can make mistakes of assumption and think that your kids are your stepkids because the surname is different. Just thought I would mention that.
Thank God I didn't say anything to my boss as he might have been majorly insulted.
From a practical standpoint, one thing to consider is that if you travel, if your kids have different surnames than you, (Assume that just Mom is travelling with the kids, Dad stayed home) a worst case scenario could be that the Passport Control Officers of the other country could think you are abducting the children because the surnames are different and for that reason, they don't believe that the children are yours. It could potentially happen.....