hyphenated last names

[cellio]

Idle question:

Yesterday someone asked me if my husband and I have the same last name (we don't), and then asked why we didn't combine the names with a hyphen. We rejected that pretty much out of hand; I just don't care for it.

The practice has been around long enough that people who were born with hyphenated last names are now, potentially, marrying each other. I assume that no one hyphenates the hyphenated names, but I wonder what the most common practice is: keep your own, both take one set, or ditch all the hyphens in favor of something simpler?

Comments

[cellio]

That depends entirely on whether they're planning to have kids. :-) (Hey, as an adult I'd rather have the interesting name, but five-year-olds can be awfully cruel.)