What's in a name?

So everyone is asking me about what baby names we have picked -- and honestly, we have 6 months -- we haven't even gotten our brains there yet.  We had always discussed that we wanted a "normal" name but nothing too common (i.e. something between a Sarah and Apple) but that was about it.  But this has gotten me thinking about the whole last name situation . . . .

I never took Brad's last name when we got married.  At the time it seemed like I was giving up my identity.  I have a large family and we are very close (although in fairness I am not especially close with my Father, whose last name I inherited) But still it was part of my identity.  Brad comes from a small family and while their is more history to his last name, they are not a particularly close knit clan.  Besides all of the traditional feminist reasons of being an independent woman and not wanting to be my husband's property, I just couldn't see myself giving up my identity and my family name to be replaced with a moniker that wasn't particularly important to those people who already had it.  I didn't want to abandon my siblings either -- although now my Sister has gone and married and taken her husband's name -- as has my Mother.  So the women in the family all have different last names now. 

And now that I am preggo, in addition to thinking about the kid's first name, I find myself pondering the kid's last name.  I assume it will be Brad's last name, but I think it will bother me a bit to not have the child be identified in part as my own too.  So then, do I change my name?  I could go the route of hyphenating the kid's name, but then what happens if they want to marry someone with a hyphenated last name?  We seem to be setting our kids up for a law firm like merger where names become items to barter and pawns of the acquisition.  Plus, we are fairly certain if we have a boy baby, he will be named after Brad's Grandfather "John Allen" and have a double first name and then a double last name would be too much!

Perhaps it is all in my head, but the gravity of this decision is weighing on me.  A lot of my identity has come from my name, and any decision to alter my identity, or more significantly, shaping a new child's identity, I feel cannot be taken lightly.  But, as usual, my propensity to negotiate has me talking myself into and out of corners right, left and center . . . So round and round I go.  Like a Merry-Go-Round.  Where I will stop, nobody knows!

I suppose I should get back to work though
Namaste,
~Clare