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We did this -- when my husband and I married we each kept our our own names and we agreed that when we had kids the girls would have his name and the boys would have mine.
As the fates decreed, we had a girl and a boy. We followed through on our agreement. And it's been NO problem. We're signed up as a family unit in dozens of places -- schools, doctors, pharmacies, scout groups -- and each time it's been completely matter-of-fact. Occasionally someone will blink, or double-check that the form is filled out right. But there has been literally no consternation, no argument, no how-could-you-DO-that? And even more telling, just about everyone has gotten it right.
My hunch is that there are so many permutations of family out there -- step-parents, half-siblings, divorced, remarried, unmarried, unable-to-marry, not to mention all the inter-generational complexities -- that a woman and man married to each other, living in one home with their two biological children, is actually fairly simple, no matter what their naming strategy.
