I agree with the fact that it's easier for everyone to share the same name, especially when one parent travels alone with the kids. It's such a faff (with good reasons) if you don't have the same.

The issue is more that it's often assumed that the wife has to take the husband's name by default, rather than it being ultimately a choice between the couple.

The Spanish system is superior:
FirstName(s) Parent1LastName Parent2LastName

To clarify it's the first last name of both parents, and you can choose the order with the condition all children of same parents must have the same order.

where I live, kids still usually take on their father’s name (sometimes the names are combined), but the mother almost never takes on her husband’s name. so yes, usually the mother will be an outlier in her family, last name wise.

i don’t think mothers were i live are less connected to their family because of it, tho

(altho, personally, i still don’t like the fact that it’s expected for kids to take on their father’s name, it feels like a relic of a shitty system better left in the past)

Icelandic patronyms like to have a word. You can have a 4 person family and nobody has the same "last name"

Here, there is no surname. every name is a given name. Yes, even something like Abdul Juan Michael Obama Pierre can be a full given name of one guy.

Wellcome to the Spaniard custom, probably older than your country 🫠