Hooray! What a good solution to the name game. I really hope combining partner names catches on. I used to think I'd keep my name, if/when I got married, if I was already 'established' in my field. It has only been in the past couple of years that it has really occurred to me that changing my name feels, well, frankly, insulting. And I don't mean to disparage the choices of individuals. I'm just saying, for me, it now feels wrong (in this totally hypothetical scenario). But the whole kid thing complicates just about any name choice - hyphenated names are inevitably a mouthful, potentially having a different name than my kids makes me sort of sad, giving up my name entirely makes me sad, copying a friend's parents and (in the case of multiple kids) alternating last names seems even more complicated. So why not meld?