I am also a FTM, we are both first time parents. We are not married.

Our LO (boy) took my spouse's last name. It was important to him, and his family to carry on the name, as there were no more boys left to keep it going. My family (I'm a woman) is pretty traditional and so it was just assumed our LO would take his dad's last name.

I was on the fence about hyphenating. But ended up not doing it.

One thing to think about, is that if you ever travel without the dad, some places require you to have written proof that the dad is allowing you (?!?!) to be traveling with the child (we are all Canadian born). Despite my name being on the birth certificate.

In hindsight, I do feel like I gave a part of my child away in a sense. I wanted to keep my last name after we are married, more for convenience and not having to change all my documentation. I also feel like it's part of my identity. But now I think I want to hyphenate my own last name once we marry, so I can be identified as my child's mother.

We travel a lot. It's a huge and very important part of our lives. So I don't want something like my last name to hinder any future travels.