I actually want to take my GF’s last name but she’s more traditional than I am and refused. Her Bulgarian last name sounds russian…I would have loved to have had her name.
It’s better that she takes my name though, since I’m the only male on my father’s side (all of my cousins on his side are women) so I’m the last to carry my name. My GF has a brother to do that for her family.
When Mr P was first married he took his then wife’s mother’s maiden name as did she. He then published a couple of books in that name.
Left the wife, moved in with someone else. After he left her, she changed her name to the mother’s maiden name as well.
Then he met me. I was the only person in the country with my surname and when we married I was damned if I was changing it to the name he uses. If he had not published extensively using that name, he would have changed again, possibly to my name, possibly to something completely different.
With the kids, it got tricky. I was not amenable to using the ex-wife’s name for my kids. First kid was stillborn and was given a hyphenated surname. Second kid we fought to the death because I was not prepared to hyphenate and use that name on a daily basis. He ended up with that surname as a middle name.
Third kid, Mr P went in to register the birth and completely forgot to put his surname as a middle name.
I think the person who is most bothered by all the shenanigans is my father who would honestly prefer we all used the same name because he thinks everyone thinks we are living and breeding in sin.
back in high school i had a friend whose last name was Ferrari. I woulda married her and taken her last name in a heartbeat. 
Hmm… I went to university with someone whose last name was Ferrari… I concur on the “married and taken her last name in a heartbeat” !!
I have no real affinity for my last name, so I have no issue whatsoever with taking fizzy’s. She has no issue with taking mine. Once upon a time (not sure if she still feels this way) we settled on becoming the Bagginses. That way one of the cats would be, quite literally, Frodo Baggins.
I don’t understand the concept of adopting someone else’s name when you marry to begin with. I’m not going to adopt my future wife’s name, and I don’t expect her to adopt mine.
Of course, when you get children, the matter DOES become relevant. We’ll see what happens them.
Me and the significant other have no plans to marry or breed, but if we did I’d definitely want her name on two grounds:
She’s double-barreled, and the sort of people who care about that sort of thing are more likely to cut double-barreled people some slack;
My name is Duffy. A fine old Irish name to be sure, but unfortunately it rhymes with “scruffy”. And “puffy”. And “huffy”. And “fluffy”. And is far too similair to “duffer”, “duff beer” etc. I couldn’t make another kid put up with that for their entire playground career.
I may be making this up, but wasn’t this the case with Pierre and Marie Curie? He took her last name.
I’ll have to find a cite for this. Bear with me…
I didn’t take my first husband’s last name and he didn’t want to take mine (stubborn). So we took a third. I did a legal name change and then he took mine.
Then we got divorced. He kept “my” last name, I kept the last name for a while and eventually went back to my maiden.
He changed his name to Sklodowska (or Sklodowski, I guess)? Seems unlikely.
As for the OP – I don’t intend to change my name if I ever marry, nor would I expect my hypothetical husband to change his. It seems like a silly custom, and getting a new passport is expensive.
Ah, I must be making it up then. I think it was my dad who told me that - I’ll find out from him if I’m mixing it up with something else.