Interesting that in a supposedly patriarchal society as in Italy, the wife continues to use her maiden name. That has been the norm for the longest time, even in the early 20th century and earlier. I had encouraged my wife when we got married to continue that practice. My grandmother used her maiden name until she passed away and she was born in 1909. Why does a woman change her name upon marriage? In Spain, the husband changed his surname to his wife’s surname, as do the Portuguese, if I recall.
As we were married in Quebec, my (now ex) wife retained her maiden name. As that was the law there, I had no adverse reaction to that, although it did take some explaining to my parents out West. And in truth it did not bother me at all on a philosophical level. I would not have changed my surname to hers.
Our children have my last name. I do not personally know anybody in Quebec, or anywhere else, where the children did not take the father's surname. I don't think I would have been very happy if my wife had insisted they have her surname, or hyphenated last names.
Biblically a male Jewish child's name would be his or her first name, followed by "son of" the father's first name, but that soon got too complicated, so family surnames evolved.
On occasion my wife and myself having different names on our passports caused raised eyebrows in certain overseas countries when we checked into hotels, but was easily explained.
However, when my wife took our 13 year old son to Israel by herself, we had to get a certified true copy of our marriage certificate, plus a notarized letter from me authorizing her to take him out of Canada, as of course his last name on his passport was different from hers...
