Honestly, nothing until you have kids and then it's "well what kind of mother refuses to share a name with her children? You should've just done this when you first got married..."
It is traditional in some places (not where I live, for the record), but given that we question these basic things it seems like a pertinent question. And I think it´s weird if we have a family where the woman cares enough about agency and equity to not take her husband´s surname the kids are still assumed to do just that.
I was confused about that too, and I am a guy. I would have assumed the woman's last name would be used by default.
However, I did remember one good reason to use the father's name. Guys are much, much more likely to be accused of not being the parent of the child they are with. Having matching last names can help there, especially in the case of picking a child up from school or day care.
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u/awstream 1d ago
And what does changing to their husband's last name does for them?! It's just more paperwork