I guess this is the US of A? Here in a northern European country you get the option when you marry to keep your names, combine both, only keep the husband's or only keep the wife's.

It’s even worse in Japan, where married women are legally required to take their husband’s name. (There is mounting pressure to reform this, though the conservative ruling party is dragging its feet.)

Not to detract from your general point, but no, you don't need an attorney to change your name in (at least most of) the US, especially if you have a reason you can put on a simple court filing like "marriage". It is somewhat unnecessarily complicated by paperwork, but you definitely don't need a lawyer and it isn't recommended to pay for one for something so simple.

I know this because I'm transgender and have changed my entire name, and looked up the process in multiple states.

The Spanish system is superior:
FirstName(s) Parent1LastName Parent2LastName

To clarify it's the first last name of both parents, and you can choose the order with the condition all children of same parents must have the same order.

I agree with the fact that it's easier for everyone to share the same name, especially when one parent travels alone with the kids. It's such a faff (with good reasons) if you don't have the same.

The issue is more that it's often assumed that the wife has to take the husband's name by default, rather than it being ultimately a choice between the couple.

Icelandic patronyms like to have a word. You can have a 4 person family and nobody has the same "last name"

Here, there is no surname. every name is a given name. Yes, even something like Abdul Juan Michael Obama Pierre can be a full given name of one guy.

where I live, kids still usually take on their father’s name (sometimes the names are combined), but the mother almost never takes on her husband’s name. so yes, usually the mother will be an outlier in her family, last name wise.

i don’t think mothers were i live are less connected to their family because of it, tho

(altho, personally, i still don’t like the fact that it’s expected for kids to take on their father’s name, it feels like a relic of a shitty system better left in the past)

Wellcome to the Spaniard custom, probably older than your country 🫠

Couples I've known who both had double-barrelled surnames before marriage generally combined one of the names from each of their names to create a new double-barrelled name, which is what their new family and kids use. E.g. A-B marries X-Y and they become B-Y or X-A or whatever.

Sometimes, the missing parts of the surname get given to specific children as middle names. Which is a nice way of acknowledging older family members without burdening your kid with an old or boring name.

That's... a bizarre take on the situation.

Rest of the world: wat

Whenever I've had this debate, it's always the men who are pro-circumcision, but go off I guess.

So that's why Trump is envious then

A relic from a bygone era, but my favorite meme of all time

I had a fun conversation one time.

A friend complained that all movies about band careers are the same. “They start from nothing. Struggle to get anything. Then suddenly get their big break and they’re famous. “

I was like, “yeah otherwise it’d be boring as shit. You want the Taylor Swift movie where her parents just pay her way into stardom?”

Oh yeah, I'll bet you could do what she does even better if you had rich parents. /s

Has he enabled Bridgy Fed?