My friend said she had suggested to her fiance they both change their last name to one that's a combination of their current individual last names. For her, this would solve the problem of not wanting to simply take his last name, but at the same time wanting to have the same last name as her children.

I don't plan to change my last name when I marry--my boyfriend would prefer I did (I'm not sure why...a sense of tradition, I suppose), but realizes that it isn't his choice to make. I don't feel I need to take his last name, and as a journalist I want to keep my byline the same through my career. Having the same last name as my future children isn't a problem for me--there are several different last names in my family, and I've never felt like less of a family member for it.

I very seriously offered to change my last name to hers. I'm not particularly close to my family, and had no real attachment to it. That offer kind of sealed the deal for her, she immediatly decided to change her name to mine. By happenstance we are both fourth-generation Canadians of Polish decent. Her family had, through adoption, "lost" their Polish name, and she had this odd (to me) longing for a Polish name.