There was a time not so long ago, that when it came to marriage, the female of that marriage, would give up her last name and replace such with her husband’s last name. Nowadays, while we see that this is still fairly commonly done, there are plenty of people that do marry, that instead either maintain their own last name or add their spouse’s last name to theirs, with or without a hyphen, though typically a hyphen is used. So then, a fair amount of children have a hyphenated last name, which comes across as looking fairly normal and fits within the conventions of the day. However, the problem with a hyphenated last name is when that child decides that they desire to get married and further to the point, to have children, we find that because a last name can only be so long before it gets rather cumbersome, and that virtually everyone agrees that a hyphenated last name should consist of just two names with only one hyphen, this becomes the crux of the problem because those with hyphenated last names are going to have to be creative when it comes to combining their name with their spouse, of which, decisions and compromises are going to have to be made.
One could argue that the creativity in combining a hyphenated last name of what to keep and what to delete might even sound fun. Still, it has to be remembered, that many people desire to follow in the footsteps of their family tree and when there seems to be an abrupt change in the last name convention, it makes that family tree look out of sorts. So too, there are those people who are pretty adamant that their last name must continue within family generations, and when two people believe in that same thing, it just makes the decision of what last names to keep and what to delete or modify, all the more difficult. So too, when it comes to hyphenated last names, there are only so many syllables that other people will tolerate before they decide that they might address you in a way and manner in which part of your last name is truncated.
All of the above indicates that naming conventions have their good and bad points, in which, as long as people are sensible, it can be worked out, but not everyone is sensible, and there are many a person who will argue and fight over things of far less importance than a last name, so when it comes to the naming convention of those that are getting married or of those that have a hyphenated last name already and are getting married, things can get out of control, especially in consideration that there isn’t really a fixed standard way that last names are combined, or hyphenated names are uncombined. This thus signifies that to a certain degree, how people who are getting married go about deciding what to do or not do about their different last names, may foreshadow how that relationship will or will not work out, because compromise and consideration are always desired attributes for a healthy relationship.