We did the same thing -- boys got my last name, girls got my wife's last name.
My kids all have my wife's name. We thought it was a cooler name. Who cares?
Wow, salutes all around today. I'm pleasantly surprised.
My wife is Hispanic, and we gave our kids Hispanic first and middle names, and then my last name. I thought that was a great way to do it, but the last few years I've kind of regretted not giving them both last names they way they do it in pretty much every latin country. Right now they are 2 and 7 year old. Do you think it would be worth changing? Or just too confusing all around?
First: I don't mean to imply that assigning the mother's last name to a child is an inherent good. I do mean that I appreciate when people in our current society do it, because there's no reason why taking the father's last name should be the default (as it currently is), so every person who bucks the trend should eventually lead to more fairness.
That out of the way: I'll go on record as supporting the Spanish (and other Hispanic countries') approach. For those who don't know: It means that every person has two last names; first their father's father's last name, and second their mother's father's last name.
For example: Take the renowned Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo. His father's name was Plácido Domingo Ferrer, where "Domingo" came from his father and "Ferrer" from his mother. His mother's name was Josefa Embil Echániz, where "Embil" came from her father and "Echániz" from her mother. So the tenor's full name is José Plácido Domingo Embil.* In everyday usage, the second name often gets dropped, but it's legally there.
I like this solution because (1) it removes the pressure on women to take their husband's name to feel like part of the family, because there's a sharing of names between both parents and the child and (2) the fact that everyday usage favors the father's name would help ease the transition from our current patriarchal system.
It will never happen, of course, but I'd be on board if it did.
*I don't know why he goes by his middle name, but it doesn't matter for our purposes.