I was wondering how you and your husband approached last-naming your family. Has your husband taken your last name or vice-versa? What factors went into this decision? Does your child have the same last name as one or both of you?
Semi-relatedly, does your child call both parents “dad?” Or is one of you “dad” while the other is “daddy” or “father” or “papa” to avoid confusion?
I know there are no “rules” here, and there are as many different ways of doing it as there are different couples. I’m just interested in hearing how one family made these decisions, as I hope to have to, at some point, make these decisions myself.
— Dan
Los Angeles
We’re the Augusts. My husband legally changed his last name to August while we were pregnant with our daughter, so we’d all have the same last name. It’s made life a lot easier.
The name change happened before we got married — before the possibility of marriage was even a ship on the horizon. He had to take out an ad in the newspaper, file court papers, the whole deal. Thanks to a [recent court decision](http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0541896320080505), it’s now a lot more straightforward for a man to change his name, at least in the state of California.
As far as our kid, I’m Papa and he’s Daddy. Most of our two-dad-family friends have a similar setup.