Why is my last name the price of marriage?

I’m looking for some outside perspectives on a situation in my longterm relationship.

My partner and I have been together, on and off, for 12 years and have lived together for the past 7 years. We've talked about marriage, but we've reached a disagreement that neither of us seems willing to budge on.

He has told me that he doesn't want to get married unless I take his last name. The problem is that I want to keep my maiden name as part of my identity. I’m the last person in my family line with my last name, and it means a lot to me. My preference would be to hyphenate our names so I can honor both my family and our marriage.

He feels strongly that a married couple should share his last name, while I feel strongly about keeping mine in some form.
I'm curious how others would view this. Is it reasonable for him to make taking his last name a condition of marriage? Is it reasonable for me to want to keep my maiden name through hyphenation? Would this be a red flag to you, or just a difference in values that couples sometimes have to work through?

I'd appreciate honest opinions and experiences from people who have dealt with similar situations.

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My husband wanted to keep his surname and wanted me to change mine to his. I gave him the following options:

A) He changes his surname to mine
B) We both change to double-barrelled (hyphenated)

I said I’m not going to go through all the admin and headaches of changing my surname after I’ve built my career and completed my masters and GAIC with my surname, he can get *%#%d.

He didn’t want to change his surname either (well isn’t that a surprise), so we both kept our surnames and both happy (win-win!)

In the end, you’re still married regardless. Surnames don’t mean anything. You still love each other, that’s the most important thing.

A lot of my friends are not married and have kids, and that’s okay too.

No need to conform to the old values. Do whatever that makes both of you happy.

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