Last night, we were talking with the girls about women taking their husbands' last names and how, on the face of it, that's pretty weird business.  Just to mix things up, I shared with them that my friend, Lizanne, though she's super progressive, made the switch when she got married, figuring that the family name she was giving up was that of her dad -- another guy.  So what the hell?  

We all agreed that the streamlining benefit of sharing a last name is a handy feature, not to be taken lightly, if only at the Immigration counter at an international airport. So, what about going back to the old world method of naming a family by describing its singularly distinguishing characteristic, as in "Brewer," "Potter," or "Weaver." In the case of Bo's family, after much genealogical research, it became known that the name "Wilsterman" actually means, "Man from Wilster."   

To put a modern spin on this old-fangled approach, and to solve the whole problem, Greta had the idea that a newlywed couple should be encouraged to develop a family name based on their common interests. She used the last name, "Flanksteak," as an example, and that won us all over.