OT -To hyphen or not to hyphen

My "husband" and I have been together for thirteen years and since I wasn't supposed to be able to have children we had decided we never wanted the official paperwork saying we were married.

Oh how babies change everything, lol.

Now that we will be having a child we want to go ahead and become officially married.

So now I can't decide if I want to completely take my husband's last name or hyphenate it...and if I hyphenate do I place mine or his first....

My husband isn't too fond of hyphenating...but I have been using my last name for so long it will seem strange to loose it entirely...but I do want the same last name as my child...

Any suggestions...pros/cons...??

Usually, when a woman hyphenates her name, she puts her name first, followed by her husband's.

Children having different last names than their parents is a lot more common today than it used to be. But I used to work for a school district, and OMG what a pain in the ass it was for some parents! Especially if they wanted to check their child out for appointments, emergencies, etc. It also makes traveling a pain.

I work at the DMV and hyphenating is a pain in the butt for most women!

I added my maiden name as part of my middle name and avoided hyphens.  I have two middle names and my husband's last name.  

I highly recommend just taking your husband's name and not hyphenating. My last name is the biggest pain in the butt. DMV doesn't recognize spaces or periods in names and they hyphenated my two word last name and that was the beginning of the nightmare. I have several alias because people might put me in a computer as one word, two words, hyphenated, a period after the ST. Some computers reverse my name. Good luck!