Kids with parents with different last names

[Anonymous]

I dated a guy years ago that was from a progressive family and the parents were always married but the mother kept her maiden name and gave that last name to the daughter and the sons had their dad’s last name.

[Anonymous]

My kids have my last name, and no, it's not weird. On top of that, my last name is WAY harder to pronounce than my husband's. That's just what we decided to do together after taking into account family history and preferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess no one is ever just curious about things. Op, I would be curious too.

Op here. I was just curious. And we know plenty of divorced and blended families. I’m very well aware kids can have different fathers. I just thought this situation was a little odd because siblings look the same as in they look totally like full siblings.

There was an Asian family with all 4 family members with different last names. Also seem like a non blended family. I would never ask in real life. That’s why I asked on an anonymous forum.

Not sure what specific ethnicity you could be referring to, but in parts of South India women take the first name of their father as their last name, and when they are married, they take their husband's first name. I know a family where the husband's last name is his dad's first name, his wife still had her dad's first name as her last name,(essentially her maiden name), their children had the first name of husband as their last names.

[Anonymous]

I offered to my husband to choose between hyphenating our names for the kids, or giving each of our names to one of them (or mine for girls and his for boys.) He chose hyphenating, but any of the choices would have been fine with me since they are all fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess no one is ever just curious about things. Op, I would be curious too.

Op here. I was just curious. And we know plenty of divorced and blended families. I’m very well aware kids can have different fathers. I just thought this situation was a little odd because siblings look the same as in they look totally like full siblings.

There was an Asian family with all 4 family members with different last names. Also seem like a non blended family. I would never ask in real life. That’s why I asked on an anonymous forum.

Not sure what specific ethnicity you could be referring to, but in parts of South India women take the first name of their father as their last name, and when they are married, they take their husband's first name. I know a family where the husband's last name is his dad's first name, his wife still had her dad's first name as her last name,(essentially her maiden name), their children had the first name of husband as their last names.

I’m still disturbed that you think you can tell a “blended” family from a non blended family and that you would even bother to try?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess no one is ever just curious about things. Op, I would be curious too.

Op here. I was just curious. And we know plenty of divorced and blended families. I’m very well aware kids can have different fathers. I just thought this situation was a little odd because siblings look the same as in they look totally like full siblings.

There was an Asian family with all 4 family members with different last names. Also seem like a non blended family. I would never ask in real life. That’s why I asked on an anonymous forum.

Not sure what specific ethnicity you could be referring to, but in parts of South India women take the first name of their father as their last name, and when they are married, they take their husband's first name. I know a family where the husband's last name is his dad's first name, his wife still had her dad's first name as her last name,(essentially her maiden name), their children had the first name of husband as their last names.

I’m still disturbed that you think you can tell a “blended” family from a non blended family and that you would even bother to try?

I don’t care much. Most of my kids’ friends have parents who are married and have their father’s last name. We also have a few friends who are divorced and remarried. You should not be disturbed that others may be curious. If your kids have a different last name than you and your husband, someone will wonder. It may be a split second but they will wonder. As I mentioned previously, I would not ask in real life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess no one is ever just curious about things. Op, I would be curious too.

Op here. I was just curious. And we know plenty of divorced and blended families. I’m very well aware kids can have different fathers. I just thought this situation was a little odd because siblings look the same as in they look totally like full siblings.

There was an Asian family with all 4 family members with different last names. Also seem like a non blended family. I would never ask in real life. That’s why I asked on an anonymous forum.

Not sure what specific ethnicity you could be referring to, but in parts of South India women take the first name of their father as their last name, and when they are married, they take their husband's first name. I know a family where the husband's last name is his dad's first name, his wife still had her dad's first name as her last name,(essentially her maiden name), their children had the first name of husband as their last names.

The Asian family I think is Chinese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess no one is ever just curious about things. Op, I would be curious too.

Op here. I was just curious. And we know plenty of divorced and blended families. I’m very well aware kids can have different fathers. I just thought this situation was a little odd because siblings look the same as in they look totally like full siblings.

There was an Asian family with all 4 family members with different last names. Also seem like a non blended family. I would never ask in real life. That’s why I asked on an anonymous forum.

You got something like 60 responses but don't seem to have read any of them, so I don't buy that you are just curious. If you were curious you'd be trying to learn, but instead you're retrenching in "it's crazy because they actually *look* related, so what's going on??"

[Anonymous]

I adopted my daughter as a single mom. She has my name of course. I met and married my husband 3 years later. He already had 2 very young boys . So he and the boys had his name and I and my daughter have our name.

We were a family of 5 with 3 kids under age 4!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I adopted my daughter as a single mom. She has my name of course. I met and married my husband 3 years later. He already had 2 very young boys . So he and the boys had his name and I and my daughter have our name.

We were a family of 5 with 3 kids under age 4!

Thank you for the explanation.

I know half of marriages end up in divorce. I also know there are children born out of wedlock. In our limited circles, I would say most families are married with children having their father’s last name and a few with hyphenated names. We are in our early 40s and there are some divorces. No one in our immediate circles has remarried with blended children yet. This is just our immediate limited circle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I adopted my daughter as a single mom. She has my name of course. I met and married my husband 3 years later. He already had 2 very young boys . So he and the boys had his name and I and my daughter have our name.

We were a family of 5 with 3 kids under age 4!

Sounds like fun! Especially in covid times.

[Anonymous]

It’s normal for people to be curious. You can’t control that about other people. If you don’t like it, oh well! I’m curious too OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It keeps both names going. I see nothing wrong with it. My husband suggested we give our kids my name only.

My friend gave his kid his wife's last name. He came from an abusive family and did not want to be associated with them anymore. His daughter's full name does not contain any reference to his side of the family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In what situation would the older child and father have the same last name and the younger child and mom have the same last name?

The parents are married. I totally get the mom not having the same last name as the husband and kids. I kept my maiden name for years. I just thought it was odd when half the kids had the dad’s name and not the other child.

This family doesn’t appear like a blended family but I guess they could all be the same race and siblings just look really alike.

I know one family decided that the girls would have his last name and the boys would have her last name. They ended up having two girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I adopted my daughter as a single mom. She has my name of course. I met and married my husband 3 years later. He already had 2 very young boys . So he and the boys had his name and I and my daughter have our name.

We were a family of 5 with 3 kids under age 4!

This is a much more common scenario for kids with different last names. I am not sure why OP seems positive this isn’t a blended family. I would assume that it is.