The Last Name Conundrum

I know I've talked with some of you about this: the debate over what a woman should do with her last name when she gets married. I've always thought I would stick with Sprenkle. What choice did I have? So many people comment on my name--they call me by both first and last name, or they say it sounds like a fairytale character (like Rumpelstiltskin?). Kids love my last name because it's like "Sparkle" or "Sprinkle". "Sprinkle" really annoyed me as a kid, and still even a bit now when I get mail with my last name misspelled.

On the otherhand, my cousin Amy (also a Sprenkle) knew that she would take her future husband's last name at an early age because she didn't like the last name. I remember throwing her all sorts of awful last names, and she claimed she would take them over Sprenkle. Now her last name is Rocco. Serves her right.

Jessie hyphenated her last name to Sprenkle-Weitzer -- I couldn't hope to get married to a guy who has a last name that fits so well with mine.

Dad claims that when he and Mom got married, they considered combining their last names: Sprenkle and Stine. I thought he meant hyphenating as "Sprenkle-Stine". He claims that they were going to combine them into "Stinkle". I asked about "Sprine" or hyphenating. He conceded that those would have better solutions.