WHY MY CHILDREN HAVE THEIR MOM’S LAST NAME

THE WOMAN FROM THE SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICE HAD a lot of questions. I dutifully answered them, using my shoulder to clamp the big hospital phone to my ear so I could use both hands to adjust my day-old son’s latch. She asked my name, birth date, place of birth, marital status, Social Security number. Then she asked all of these same questions about my husband. Then she asked for the baby’s time and date of birth, his sex, and to carefully spell his first and middle names.

She did not ask me for his last name, despite the fact that my husband and I had different last names. Half-dazed and exhausted, I didn’t notice this