Speaking of hyphenated names

A friend of mine kept her maiden name when she got married so their children's name is hyphenated. I am curious to see how the kids handle their hyphenated name when they get married and have kids of their own. Realistically, at least one of the names will have to be dropped for the very reason you bring up.

As a genealogist, I found it was not unusual for families in history to give their children the middle name of the mother's maiden name. So while the middle name would not carry on forever, it would identify people with their mother's maiden as well.