This came up when i was re-reading the manga.
I don't really remember which chapter, but it was at the beginning when the group visited the Hitachiin family mansion. they met the famous designer, Hikaru and Kaoru's mother...who has the last name Hitachiin. all the other members were curious, since usually the last name is passed on from the father to the children (i was dumbfounded too, as far as i know the woman passing their last name to children only happen when the woman is divorced or not married in Asian culture).

The Hikaru and Kaoru explained that they have their mother's surname because....their father was married into their mother what is this? I have never head of such practice in Asia. Traditionally woman are considered married to a man, and that is a very old way of thinking. Have any of you heard a practice in which a man is married into the woman and therefore the children has the wife's surname? or is this situation exclusively made-up for the ouran high school host club for comical purposes?

I'm not sure what you're asking here...

If you want to know about the cultural thing alone, I can't help you.
If you ask in general, well...
Yes, things like that do happen.

It has to do with social class and the family line.
For example, if the wife comes from some powerful family, they would like to see their grandchildren be part of the family and recognized as such (i.e have the same last name).
So, with the hubbies agreement, they both take on the wife's last name.

Er, sorry for the poor explanation.
My point is, it does happen.

Other cultures traditionally combine the last names, or do whatever they do.

Edit:
Wiki has a nice gathering of info on the subject. :3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Married_and_maiden_names



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It's not that unusual. Happens most commonly when the woman's family has no males in it to inherit the family name.

Example: my neighbor "K" married into his wife's family and took her name so that the "K" name would continue. (Ironically, they had all girls)

Yes, the same thing happened in my family. My sister didn't change her name when she got married, because otherwise our name would disappear - there are only girls in my family now and there aren't any more people who have the same name.

Like everyone else said it does happen in real life.
In terms of manga it's not unique to Ouran. If you've read Special A, Kei (and his dad) took on the name Takishima from his mother. It wasn't a big deal in the story, but I'm assuming it was for status/business purposes. They had to keep the Takishima company name alive.

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They had a Japanese Drama based on this as well. It was called Mukodono (http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Mukodono!).

The main character marries into his lover's family, since her family has only four daughters, and she is the youngest.

...Just adding onto the discussion.