if we want to stop the patriarchal concept of surnames being passed down the male line, we have a few options options that i’d be 100% fine with:
children get whichever surname is cooler, to eliminate uncool surnames over the generations
children get whichever surname is rarer, to achieve a utopian future in a few centuries where all surnames are more or less equally common
children’s surnames are randomly generated: say, heads for parent #1’s surname, tails for parent #2’s surname
parents pick the first names first, and then a court decides which surname fits it better. so if a couple named mr. madison and mr. liu want to name their daughter alison, she’ll get the surname liu, because alison madison sounds ridiculous
everyone stops having children right now
6) both parents’ surnames are combined into a new name, in the same vein as portmanteau ship-names
7) We adopt elvish naming customs and have upwards of three names for each individual, none of which are surnames and all of which may be translated to any other language for any reason at any point in our lives. This has no advantages but will really annoy every government on earth and I just think it’d be really funny to watch them figure out the paperwork for that
I once completed a name change for a Miss White, she was getting married to Mr. Black
They both changed their name to Mr and Mrs. Grey
No one will ever do this better than them.
