There's a guy in my office who just learned that his baby-on-the-way is going to be a boy. So I stopped by this morning to chat about if he's picked a name and things like that. (One of the possibilities happens to be
Max.) Somewhere along the way we got into the discussion of last names. He said that he had told his wife he wouldn't marry her if she didn't take his last name. I said that there was no way I would have married him and we got into a little debate about the last name thing.
He made some good points, that it makes sense for a family all to have one name, hyphenates are a pain in the ass, etc, but some of his points I felt were stupid. I.E., it's tradition, or if you keep your last name your stating that you're still part of your maiden family. So what? I'm always going to be a part of that family. Is he stating that he's not starting a new family by keeping his last name?
He then asked if, for instance, Jeremy and I hyphenated when we got married, who's name would come first? I said I didn't really care and wasn't fussy, to which he replied that I WAS indeed fussy and that's why we were having this discussion in the first place. How is he any less fussy by saying that he won't marry the woman he loves unless she changes her name to his?
I dunno. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to change my last name come hell or high water, but it does get weird once kids become involved. I just think it's stupid that I should have to go through all the new forms of ID and other crap just because I'm female and that's the way it's always been.
