Interesting question and interesting points of view from those who opted not to take the last name.
My sister retained her last name when she married, because she has worked so hard to get a phd, that she wanted to keep her maiden name with it.
I, on the other hand, have always belived that when you marry, you make your own family unit, so having the same last name makes it so....for me. My parents didn't have different last names, and I probably would have felt wierd if they did. Whose last name would I have taken? I would have been torn...why did I get the certain last name and not the other? Are my parents really married? These are all things I probably would have wondered about growing up.
I was a little torn about giving up my last name, because you don't hear it very often...and my family is small and there are only a couple of boys (my 2 cousins) to carry on the family name. But, I did want my own family unit, so I took my husband's last name. However, I did hyphen my last name into my middle name, so if you look on my social security card, I have my full first name, middle name-maiden last name, married last name.
Does that makes sense?
**hugs**
Karen