Why my husband and I gave our son his father’s surname

My feminism is my own choice, this is a tradition I was happy to keep

The majority of parents today still give their child the surname of the father

Eimear McGovern

As I sat cradling my son in my arms, an old work colleague asked whether I had any fears about raising a boy. Feeling the soft, warm and oh-so-lovely body on my lap, I had a think. Toxic masculinity, male-on-male violence, mental health issues, Andrew Tate — there’s certainly no shortage of issues faced by the modern boy and man, and yet, my answer was still no.

I think I always knew the baby I was expecting was a boy, despite my family’s thoughts to the contrary. As one of three daughters, it seemed almost inconceivable that one of us would give birth to a boy, breaking a cycle that had seen only girls born in our family since 1992.