A solution to what surname a child should take

Traditionally, people (including myself) take the surname of their father. This is mostly due to when the parents get married, the wife takes the husband’s surname, and then the husband’s surname becomes the family name. However, this is seen as quite a backwards idea — why is the man’s surname seen as the most important? Therefore, we see it more and more often that the wife will not change her surname. This then creates the issue of what surname to give the children?

Often in these circumstances, a common solution is to give the child a double barrelled surname consisting of both parents’ names. However, what happens when they then have kids? Do their children then have triple, or even quadruple barrelled names? A lot of the time when people have a double barrelled surname, they will take one of the names to be their main surname, and they will use that when a name is required for any quick bits of ladmin. So they can then use that name to pass onto their kids. This then means that one of the names is more important than the other (usually the Dad’s as well), which seems to miss the point of why a double barrelled name was chosen in the first place!

Another suggestion I have heard is to alternate the surnames given to the children. But this then means that if you don’t have an equal number, one of the parents’ names is prioritised. A final suggestion is for the parents to both keep their original names, and to just choose one of the names for the children, but again you have the question of who to choose.

So my solution is this: give any male children the surname of the mother, and any female children the surname of the father. There is no single name for the family, but two, one for each of the parents that it takes to make the family. This solution ensures that there is an equal probability of each child being given the name of the mum/dad, so ensures fairness. And to alternate male/female means that a surname won’t just die out and become one gender.