I grew up with a hyphenated last name. I grew up in NYC and a good 20% or more of my peers had names like mine so I didn't care.

I cared when I became an adult and officially dropped one of them.

I would recommend using yours (or his) as the middle name and the other as the last. When I married I kept mine and added his and it is confusing to many, like drs or even hotel reservations. Going through school and forms would be a pain. Some families are fine with this arraignment, but personally its easier with one last name

My kids have a hyphenated last name. It is a total of 9 letters so not too long. It has never once been an issue on planes, school, doctors office and whatever other parade of horribles people like to trot out. Many of their friends also have hyphenated last names and it’s not a big deal at all.

I was reminded that this was the right thing to do when I driving DS and his teen friend around and the friend was saying, yeah my mom’s last name is X, she doesn’t have the same name as the rest of us.

Anonymous wrote:Serious question- would you want to go through life with that last name? Every time you say or write your name you have to do both?

Just put yours as a middle name.

This.

Dh's best friend hated it so much he took his wife's last name when they married. All forms were a pain, especially anything that had a set number of boxes to fill out. Dh said his name was listed wrong so many times on official documents and forms. And forgrt about the small reasons like sports jerseys and all that. I wouldn't do it.

Anonymous wrote:Why not just try it and you change it back to one last name (either yours or DH's) if it's too disruptive?

Because a lot of things in life have to align with what is on your birth certificate- social security card being the most used one. Then your license and all forms of id that flow from that. Op would have to legally change the birth certificate.

My wife’s name is hyphenated. She likes it but it sometimes causes problems with booking tickets and appointments

God forbid they marry someone with a hyphenated name- oof!

Why not just try it and you change it back to one last name (either yours or DH's) if it's too disruptive?

Just pick one. Don't do that to your kid.

My husband has a hyphenated name and doesn’t like it.

Obviously experiences will vary but I hyphenated mine and regret it. Too unwieldy. If I could do it again, I’d just keep my name or take his but not both. I chose to not do that to my kids.

Serious question- would you want to go through life with that last name? Every time you say or write your name you have to do both?

Just put yours as a middle name.

And fitting it on sports uniforms. Other than that, what hardships are you worried about?

I’m seriously considering giving my baby both my and my DH’s last name. The whole thing would be easier if we had simple and short last names but both are uniques and mine is very long!

Aside from the practical issues (like fitting both names on forms), I can’t imagine this would be an issue. Experiences???