Baby Surnames

Personally I come out of two main cultural traditions. I have my dad’s last name, and for generations my family had gone with that and so has pretty much everyone else in both communities.

But I’m also a direct female descendant of a matrilineal line. That means that I have another name that identifies me as the daughter of the daughter of the daughter of the daughter of... etc.

Men (historically) enter into the clans of their wives, in this tradition, and women would thus carry “the family name” in a similar way that men carry the family name in Western tradition.

I’m tempted to plan on giving all my girls a different last name to start a tradition within my own family that (I hope) ensures that this less visible aspect of their ancestry is not forgotten.

I just wanted others’ thoughts 🤷🏾‍♀️