when i got married 5 years ago, it was very important to my husband that i take his last name. me, being the feminazi that i am, didn't want to just take his name -- so i decided to hyphenate.
the problem was my maiden name was very ethnic, easy to spell but definitely left no imagination as to my parental ancestry. my husband's name was even more ethnic, a bijillion letters in odd combinations that often leaves strangers garbling over the pronunciation.
so my decision to hyphenate his and my last names, well, it was the united-nations-on-a-business card. the little sign at my office door? barely fit in all the letters. at last count, it had somewhere in the realm of 25 letters to fit. professionally and personally, after about a year and a half, i switched to take only his name. it really meant a lot to him and honestly, as long as people don't call me a nasty cnut, i don't quite care what they call me.
besides, after hearing just about every botched attempt to pronounce my married last name, it's quite fun in a warped twisted way to watch people's panicked expressions as the "omigod, how do i pronounce this without choking?" look appears on his or her face. yes, i let them struggle a bit before rescuing them. any time i need to do a public speaking gig, i just laugh because that moment is coming my way.
my point in all this -- do what you want and if neither last name is normal, change 'em both to smith or something equally boring.
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My favorite thing about the Michalski last name is that you ALWAYS know when a telemarketer has gotten through the do not call list ... I have yet to encounter one who does not botch the name:)
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