How come men don't take the woman's last name? Apparently these days, some children take their mother's last name. Apparently, school like to know that the mom and child have the same last name. It's so strange....because there are so many chen's and lee's.....a chen can then just claim another chen. I think its lame. This is what someone was telling me. She has a 16 yrs old but got divorced and can't formally change her last name back to her maiden name because of her son's school. Strange.