So…can we hyphenate our last names or not?
I honestly feel that this last name thing would degrade into very veiled power games...Which last name goes first (or which one is adopted by the other partner)? Are there maybe hidden meanings? (the first last name in the mix is from the 'dominant' partner?)
This idea is kinda weird to me because, in my country when heterosexual couples marry the female doesn't lose her family name. Actually, the children have both their parents last names (father's+mother's, in that order) and the wife can choose to be called (in public, not officially) Mrs. Paternal last name + Maternal last name + of Husband's last name
Example: let's say a woman called Agatha Smith Souza marries a man with the last name Brown.
Her official name is still Agatha Smith Souza (remember that in Mexico we keep both our parents paternal last names) but for formal or status reasons people might call her Agatha Smith Souza de (of) Brown.
Actually the of + husband's last name seems the equivalent of this hyphenated name thing.