Last Names

Kate didn't change her name when we got married. She had already published some stuff under her name, and didn't want there to be confusion if she did more publishing.
Also, she doesn't think that it's necessary.
My preference was that she not change it. I'm not a fan of the practice for myself (I wouldn't want anyone I married to take my name). I'm not really interested in what other people choose for themselves, it's their business.
Occasionally, I come across some very militant feminists. If it comes up with them I tell them that Kate didn't change her name, but then point out that it's because I wouldn't allow her to.
I'm just messing with them (THAT'S NOT FUNNY!).

Anyhow, her last name is Washabaugh, mine is Nessel. What's the kid's going to be? We agreed first that we don't want to hyphenate in either direction. Neither Nessel-Washabaugh, or Washabaugh-Nessel is a particularly humane thing to do to the child, or to any of it's teachers.
It's possible that this kid will be athletic (I know, I know, no guarantees of anything). We have fairly gifted athletes on both my side and Kate's. I've been trying to imagine how big the kids shoulders (or shoulder pads) will have to be for Washabaugh-Nessel to be able to fit across the back of a jersey. That's probably not happening, and if it's a girl we'd rather she didn't have the shoulders of an offensive lineman in any case.
Whatever, we're not hyphenating.
We're also not making up some third family name that's an anagram of both our names, or part of both our names. We're not combining our names (Nessebaugh or Wassel). Nor are we going with something that we just adopt.

Both of our names have their own particular deficits in the playground realm:
Nessel is way to close to the brand name of a certain corporation that, while they make pretty good chocolate, has fairly reprehensible baby formula marketing practices. I spent most of my childhood recesses dealing with that little coincidence.
Washabaugh (Kate has told me) leads to all kinds of derivations of "wash-my-[some garment or body part that begins with the letter b that will occasion giggles from school age children - use your imagination]. It's also astonishing how many people can't pronounce it.
Ultimately, it's not like we're doing the kid any favors in that department going either direction.

So we made a completely arbitrary decision the other night that works for both of us.
If it's a girl, her name will be Ecclesiastes Marimba Washabaugh. If it's a boy his name will be Ecclesiastes Marimba Nessel.
Why? Just because (see that? I'm working on my parenting skills right there).