What surname do your children have?

I find it slightly more pretentious when dc are given heaps of middle names which they will never use.

Dd has one short strong Christian name....

And a tremendously long posh hyphenated surname

DP and I weren't married I gave my children my surname. Glad l did as now I am a lone parent we all have the same surname.

As I have said before both on here and in real life, it's fascinating how there is the special category of "women's last names" that are difficult to spell, awkward, ugly......but only when women have them. They are fine for their brothers- somehow the maleness cancels out the unfortunate nature of the name.....

I went to school with two boys who were best friends one had the surname Lacoc the other the surname Balls (I know you couldn't make it up) they both had endless teasing at school. One has taken his wife's name now.
My male cousin changed his name to his Dads name as he had the same teasing and comments I did about our surname.
I think the teasing, constant spelling out and dislike of their own name isn't a rarity in males, it's just they don't often do anything about it.

We are married. We both retained our origin surnames. DC is firstname, middlename, myname-hisname. It seemed wrong (to us) to give only one name. I don't give a monkeys what anyone thinks about double-barrelled names!

That's good ElQuinto. Sounds like Spain is far more feminist in their naming than we are!

Penguins you can now choose the order of the surnames.

DS could be: firstname+my surname+DH surname.

DS' complete name in syllables is 2+2+3, it flowed better that way.

he is the spit of me so i win thelooky-likey competition

DSes have DP's name. DS1, because it alliterated with the first name we loved (think of that what you will - we think it sounds awesome), and DS2 because even though I'd have quite liked to give him my surname (and do regret it a bit), I was concerned that it would look a bit too much like DS1 was DP's and DS2 was mine. Not to other people, but to the kids and I don't want DS1 thinking that DS2 is more important to me because we share a name.

I'm not sure if it's a silly reason or not, but it's too late now as turns out you can change a first name really easily, but not surnames (I had a wobble so checked). I'm not really sure that I see why that is - surely the name is the name and no part is more important than any other.

I didn't like double barrelling - just felt clumsy, and I have no intention of giving up my name if we get married (which we might, just for paperwork). I know they're my kids, I don't need to share a name to feel like a family.

I had to laugh @ santaslittlemonkeybutler. I wish it could be that easy haha

Not married, DS has my name. Baby I'm expecting will have my name too.

Double barrelled are only pretentious if yiu think one must subsume to male name

I would like a twist on what I believe is the Spanish approach. Everyone pretty much has a double barrelled name. The kids get a name from each parent. I believe, however, it is the male name that gets handed down in Spain. I think that they commonly only use the male name in everyday life.

So, my scenario is Jane Smith-Jones and Paul Brown-Green marry and have kids. Both keep their names. Or they don't marry. Either way, they have kids. The kids are Molly Smith-Green and Max Smith-Green (or whatever name the parent chooses to pass down). The kids can use both names as adults, or pick one.

I think it would be brilliant. Single parents could pass down both their names. People who wanted to avoid passing on the name of a parent for some reason could use the other name. It would work generation after generation.

When I run the world....

I had a lovely maiden name and now married I've got quite a common one, but I never considered keeping it I'm married. And double barreled names are a bit pretentious.

DP' s name cos I see so many stupid double barelled names and because I still use my previous married name (same as my other children)- so could hardly give that to DP's child!

I hate my surname and had years of horrible nicknames, bullying, taunting, miss-spelling and shit pronunciation. I couldn't wait to get married and change my name.

Then I met DH. His surname is hilarious. So I have stuck with my own

We are in Spain, so DS has two surnames:

Firstname
+
DH hilarious surname (it's German and no, it isn't Hitler!)
+
My surname (Irish).

We blend right in with the locals

I'm Bemused by the wanted family name what they mean is his name!to define as unit

I do like the Scandinavian approach - so Jane and Fred have children, their DD is Mary Janedaughter and their DS is Joe Fredson. I think I have that right. Anyway - it makes sense and has a nice fairness about it.

My name. He is welcome to change his so we all have the same.

As I have said before both on here and in real life, it's fascinating how there is the special category of "women's last names" that are difficult to spell, awkward,ugly........but only whe women have them. They are fine for their brothers- somehow the maleness cancels out the unfortunate nature of the name...........
Maybe this is to with women being targeted more by bullies? I don't remember my brother getting any of the shit I did over our surname.

This is a really interesting thread! I can honestly say that, with the exception of one couple, I know of no-one in RL who has opted to give their DCs their mother's surname alone (supposing both parents are living together and still very much a couple at the time of the baby's birth). The person I know who did do this was actually my sister - as she said that she didn't want her DC to have a different name to her.

Nor do I know any married couples who have hyphenated their DCs surnames whilst each keeping their own name.

I do know unmarried couples who have hyphenated their surnames to make a double barrelled name for their DC and I know one couple where the husband changed his name to his wife's.

Actually, the only really good solution I have seen to this problem is to marry someone who already has the same surname to you - I know at least 3 couples where this was the case. A little limiting on potential partners, though

This actually happened 3 times in my DM's family . They were Jones' in Wales. I am still trying to make headway on our family tree research for that particular branch of the family - needle in a haystack to say the least!

Both names,his and mine

His name - my name

We're not married and don't intend to be.

Dd has mine and dp hyphenated.

Mine have my husbands.. my "maiden" name was 11 letters and his is 9. No double barrel going on there. I'm not really bothered about it, I follow my grandmothers in my genealogy anyways haha! Although I do dream of having my OG name back as it was German and sounded shouty and I like that.

DH's, with mine as a middle name. They would have sounded unspeakably dreadful double-barrelled (mine is short and British, DH's is long, rather elegant and clearly not British - think Sakashvili-Jones and you get an idea of the general horror).

DH is primary carer and much more likely to be taking DS to the doctor / picking up from school/ travelling alone with him than I am, so we decided it was just administratively easier for DS to have his name (also mine got me beaten up in the playground at primary school so I wasn't that keen to make DS repeat my experience).

I was pregnant when we got married and I blame pregnancy hormones for my decision to change my surname to DH's and give all subsequent DCs his surname too.

I'm now regretting this so have been reading the responses with interest. DH backs idea of adding my surname to theirs and changing my surname back to original.

Only problem is, it doesn't sound right to put our surnames together and makes it a mouthful for them to be saddled with (mine is 4 syllables long, DH's - our current surname - is 2 - that would mean DCs going from a 2 syllable surname to a 6 syllable one!

Any thoughts anyone?