Do you want your wife to use your name?

[Monoriu]

In HK, wives don't use their husbands' names.  Some people add their husbands' names to theirs.  They never lose their original last names. 

Say, if the wife has [last name][first name] before marriage, after the marriage her name becomes [her husband's last name][her original last name][her original first name].  This is becoming less common over time. 

I don't really care.  Now that you mention it, I recall that the wife brought up the subject a few times just before we got married.  That is probably her way of asking my opinion. 

[MadImmortalMan]

Vikes---Do you use the app that makes sure you don't mate with your cousin?

[DGuller]

Your last name is part of your identity.  Having to change it to another person's last name seems very silly.  That said, I might have different expectations if my mother didn't keep her maiden name.

[Viking]

Vikes---Do you use the app that makes sure you don't mate with your cousin?

I don't live on Iceland anymore, but, yes.

[Admiral Yi]

How often do you use it?

How often did you use it when you were in Iceland?

[The Brain]

It's not important to me if she takes my name or not.

The husband taking the wife's name, while still uncommon, is certainly on the rise. I have a hard time seeing myself change my name though. However, it does depend a lot on her name. If she's a Heydrich...

[celedhring]

Pedro Wang?
M'Bala Smirnov?
Adbullah Singh?

(s)he will be: a child of the future.

Since I'm going to marry a foreigner the kid's first name should be foreign.

Okay THAT'S a good point!

What are the benefits?

Gives them aspects of both cultures, lets them still fit in overseas (in some countries foreign names are rare. Mainly looking at Japan here) whilst still being fine in the UK (where you can be called anything and nobody bats an eyelid).
Plus its cool.
Names that work equally well in both cultures are also a good way to go though are often limited and a bit overdone.

My parents chose a Jewish name for me (we aren't Jewish) because it's present in most western cultures, written and pronounced almost the same in all of them.

In Spain a wife doesn't take her husband's family name, sons in turn get both surnames although we mostly only use the father's. Only the patronymic (father family name) is passed down, though.

[Ideologue]

I would not expect a spouse to take my name.  I think it costs extra money?  I could be wrong.  I'm mildly opposed to the convention, but basically I don't care, and if she wanted to I wouldn't stop her (unless it cost extra money).

For children, I would either have sons take my name and daughters hers; alternatively, we would flip a coin.

[The Larch]

In Spain a wife doesn't take her husband's family name, sons in turn get both surnames although we mostly only use the father's. Only the patronymic (father family name) is passed down, though.

Nowadays the mother's surname can go first if both parents agree. Since my surname is ultra common I personally wouldn't mind it in my case.

[Caliga]

My wife took my surname but I wouldn't have minded if she had chosen not to.  I don't get why anyone would care about that.

[Ed Anger]

No hyphens. No feminist bullshit. NO MERCY.

[Caliga]

Oh, if my wife had hyphenated our surnames, it would have been completely ridiculous given how long both of them were.

On a related note: we have friends up in Boston who, when they got married, the dude took the wife's name.

[Scipio]

My wife started using my last name while we were engaged, but oddly enough, only legally changed it last year.

And there you have it.

[DontSayBanana]

There is far too much bullshit that goes with having the surname McDonald.  S wants to go for it because she hates her own surname (people "correct" the spelling all the time and get it wrong), but I don't think she understands the complex I've got after almost 30 years of everybody responding to finding out my last name with a joke.  "Do you believe in magic?"  "Have you had your break today?"  "No relation to Ronald?"  "Ba-da-ba-ba-ba?"  I've heard them all multiple times.

I came pretty damn close to changing my name around 2009 when my dad, after splitting from my mom, decided to let me know (last, literally after everyone else) that he was marrying my childhood babysitter.  I got talked out of it, but between that and his father getting his former marriage annulled to convert to Catholicism finally triggering my uncle changing his surname to his mother's, I'm a reluctant McDonald, at best.

[Caliga]

Your new nickname is Mac Tonight.