How to decide on your baby's surname - because yes, there are a lot of options
There are a variety of choices to make when it comes to deciding which surname your child has, sohere's what some of our mums did...
Here in the UK, you can legally choose to give your baby any surname: you don't have to opt for either yours or the father's surname.
With all that choice - what should you do? Of course, there's no should about it, really. But we figured it might be helpful to ask our mums and find out what they did in case you're not sure what you want it to be.
A fair few of our mums did say that as they were married before they had kids, and took their husband's surname, they gave their kids the same surname, too.
That's the traditional route, but plenty of you did something different. Lots, for example, went for the double-barrel option.
Take Sam S, who says: "My kids have a double-barrel surname - my last name and their dad's - that way they can choose what they want to go by as can go by either. "
You can also double-barrel and then change, too. Love Island stars Cara De La Hoyde and Nathan Massey chose the surname De La Hoyde-Massey for their son, Freddie-George, but announced they were going to change it simply to Massey once they get married.
If you're not sure about a double-barrelled moniker, there's the option of having your surname or your partner's surname as your child's middle name - which is exactly what Laura G did:
"They both have their dad’s surname," she told us. "My son has my maiden name as his middle name. I double-barrelled when we got married."
There's also no need whatsoever for dad's surname to take precedence - as Emma J reminded us: "We're married and both kids have my surname. Doesn't have to be father's name in 21st century."
And how about situations where you have children from different relationships? Claire O told us: "My two oldest have my maiden name and my 3rd baby (by a new partner) has double-barrelled which joins us all up nicely."
On a totally different tack, one of our mums found inspiration for both her baby's first and surnames from her fave rock band.
Lindy Z says: "I wanted a name related to the band Queen and I always liked Willow but wasn't sure if it was THE name.
"So I asked for a sign and that night I kept seeing the name crop up but no relation to Queen.
"So one song came on and the lyric was 'Mother of the Willow Green'. It jumped out at me and I thought I had misheard.
"It was a Queen song and her surname was always going to be Green. That was my sign."
In some cultures, surnames aren't used at all - this was the situ with Zee M - and here's what she did: "Not all cultures have a surname.
"So when I got married I had to pick one of my husband's [first] names as our surname. We all now have that as a surname."
And finally, one option we really like is to make a hybrid name between your and your partner's that you can all take (if you have names that work together, that is).
That's just what presenter Dawn Porter did when she married actor Chris O'Dowd. She changed her surname to O'Porter. Their 2 boys, Valentine and Art, are both O'Porter, too.
What do you think?
Whose name did your little ones take? Or did you go for a double-barrel, a hybrid name like the O'Porters - or something else entirely?
Tell us in the comments below or over on Facebook
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Authors
Tara is mum to 1 daughter, Bodhi Rae, and has worked as Content Editor and Social Media Producer at MadeForMums since 2015
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