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My daughter was born in Latin America, and her birth certificate lists her two last names, his and mine. Admittedly, in many LA countries the mother's last name has a sort of for official purposes only status, and only the father's last name gets passed on, but at least the system recognizes the importance of a person's background. You can know a lot about a person if you know their mother's family name. My ID from abroad states my mother's maiden name. This is actually a very good system for identifying people.
If my daughter changes her last name, I would be as devastated as if she had changed her first name.
