I do have one friend who, when they were deciding the name issue with their spouse (after already having been married for several years and deciding that they wanted to have the same last name after all), ended up flipping a coin because neither one really wanted to change their name. That was fairly convincing in terms of the "would you have changed _yours_ in different circumstances?" question.

I'm amused by the "W" story. And a little surprised by the vehemence of James' family, but I guess my baseline has been set by years of MIT and grad school, which is perhaps not quite representative of the larger population. =)