WomenCo.

My future sister-in-law, Lori, kept her last name when she and Richard married. In turn, Richard changed his last name to hers.

What a great idea for him to think of his wife. I think to many times women assume that we have to go the traditional route, for instance take the husband's last name. I know more women that are not changing their names at all. Our last name is a part of who we are, and just because we get married doesn't mean we have to change our name.
Besides in some cases we have had our last name longer then the husband.

Was her name easier to pronounce? That is one of the reasons my husband thought about taking my last name; his last name is hard to pronounce.

I see no reason why a man cannot take a woman's last name. I know another man that did so and his reasoning was because he came from a broken family and knew nothing about his father. He married into a nice family, whom he loved and respected. Great for him! Great also for groom Kris Middleton!

I've actually known of this practice for more than 30 years in America. In a place where my family lived, the person who's family owned the most property was the one whose surname was taken. Frankly, as long as the two people involved are happy, I don't see that it's anyone else's business, but people will be people. I do find it interesting that these men had such a difficult time getting it done. I see where documents need to be updated to suit the times.

I would like to add my two cents to this conversation. My husband is Hispanic. Where he was born it is the custom for women to “add on” their husband’s last name to their own when they marry. There are two ways to do this, add a hyphen to join the two names, or add a word like Dẽ, which means “of” and is a more formal title. When we got marred I was thrilled that I could do things differently with my new last name, instead of just taking his name. I decided to go with his family’s tradition and use the word Dẽ. My Name became Daniels Dẽ Cruz. I loved it for about one year. During that year every time I said my new name I had to follow it with an explanation about the tradition, what the Dẽ meant, and why my husband’s name was not Dẽ Cruz but only Cruz. This lengthy process lost its charm real quick!
So I would suggest, before deciding to change your last name, or your husband changes his…please think about the fact that if your choice is different than what is “normal” you will be explaining “why” for a very long time. Are you willing to do so? I changed my name to just plain Cruz about two years into our marriage. It just got to be too much of a hassle to be different.
Flowerinasmallpot AKA just plain Cruz!!!

My eldest 2 children have my maiden name, since I was unmarried when I had them. When I did get legally married, all of my family including my then-future husband was against hyphenation, so I moved my maiden name to an extra middle name and took his last name. Along came 2 more children, now with my married name.
5 years later, we separate, and now I am in a same-sex relationship. Although my partner is attached to her surname, she has no fondness or loyalty from whence it came. I don't want to go back to my maiden name (my parents and I are estranged), but I do not want to keep my married name. My partner wants me to take her surname. My grandparents, who have been as parents to me in my adult years offered their name for me to use. My younger children have decided to follow along with me, but now I'm still at the dilemma of my partner and my older children!

Such drama over a name.

It always surprises me when people feel a need to do something a certain way for no other reason than that's they way it's always been done. Even more surprising can be the intense emotions that sometimes accompany this mindset. In a case like this I would do my homework on the history of the name change so my fiance and I can make an informed choice that's right for us. What other people feel about it then becomes secondary. I say "good for them".