The kids are all hyphens, as in Ultimate-Stupidity.

If my youthful fondness for illicit substances had progressed into love and then marriage, I could be Warren Drugs.

Always bucking tradition.

but my wife did. She didn't like her last name, thought mine was cool, so she made the change when we got married.

....and is known by name, a change is cumbersome. I'd encourage her not to change it.

But, I don't even believe in marriage, and this crap is just one of the many reasons why. So meh.

But she had no issues with changing it. I kinda wanted to change mine to my moms maiden name. My pops was a deadbeat and never raised me. So at first I was thinking no way do I want his name. But I'm my own man I suppose. Maybe I can bring a new perspective to my last name with my kid. My wife says she likes my last name and said no to me changing it anyways. She'd find my new last name odd lol.

Although, the reasons for that are more along the lines of procrastination, forgetfullness, lack of transportation, etc, than any philosophical or ideological reason. She does sometimes use my last name for mundane stuff like email accounts or log-in names.

And she was well-known professionally.

So, no name change.

It never came up at all. It would seem strange if it did. It's just the way it is.

There should not be pressure to go either way.

the only vague pressure I might imagine would be the pressure not to hyphenate together two very long names, which begs the question as to what could happen when two people with long hyphenated names marry each other...

*head explode*

Mostly because my cousin of the same name who until going for the neck tattoo was nearly indistinguishable from me is a character of wide ill-repute.

I look at it from a pretty plain perspective. I am sterile and will never have children. So any marriage will only be a union of two adults and in that context I would find a woman taking my name just strange and subservient. Although a woman I went to university with kept her maiden name at first, but when she was pregnant changed it because she thought it might avoid some awkwardness where her kids were concerned. She didn't want to do anything that would project ambiguity about the family.

Or at least the government sponsorship of marriage, which is pretty ironic since I've been married for over 25 years now.

The whole idea of marriage revolves around ownership going both directions. The tradition of name changing is simply a product of that idea. I just see the name changing issue as simply part of a broader idea that doesn't seem to be working very well.