Would you give up your last name to inherit a business empire?

Wanted to share this with the WSO community because it's not every day you hear a story like this + I am genuinely seeking some advice.

I have an aunt (my mother's sister) and uncle who are childless. This uncle is the Chairman & CEO + majority shareholder of a conglomerate with a 70+ year history that spans mostly capital intensive industries including construction materials / infrastructure, energy (traditional as well as renewable), insurance, mechanical engineering equipment, telecommunications, real estate, and a bunch of other random subsidiaries in various industries). The entire group is privately held, but I learned on a consolidated basis that revenue last year was approximately $1.5Bn. No visibility on exact earnings, but I know they are profitable. The holding company employs 1,000+ people across all its companies and subsidiaries.

About a year ago, this uncle asked me if I would be interested in becoming his heir. What exactly this would entail is still hazy, and specific details about how ownership in the company would be passed down (e.g. upon his death, or creating some kind of trust before his death, etc.) were not discussed, but broadly speaking, if I were to accept, he would legally adopt me, and I would essentially become his "right hand man" at the company and would be groomed to be his eventual successor. On the issue of adoption, the expectation was that I would legally change my last name to his. Though not explicitly stated, I think the expectation is any kids I have in the future would also have the same last name as my uncle...

When he first broached the subject, my uncle did not press me for a decision, and told me to take my time to think about it. Recently, he reached out again seeing where my thoughts are - which might be related to the pandemic (e.g. if he were to catch COVID, he would probably be in a higher risk category due to his age, so he might be eager to get the succession plan in motion)

My uncle and I have a good but not necessarily super close relationship - so I am surprised he would pick me. We live in different geographies / time zones, so we don't even see each other that often, but whenever I am in his area, I always make an effort to meet him for lunch, golf, etc. The last time I saw him was in January. I have not seen him in-person since the lock downs occurred.

Leaving aside the practical issues (e.g. I would have to abandon my current career and uproot myself to go where his business is), there are a host of other issues that I have to deal with. First of all, changing my last name. I am not sure how my own father would react to that. More importantly, I am still not sure how I would feel about it. In olden times, apparently it was not uncommon for children (especially sons) to be adopted into other families that did not have an heir... Also, women today change their name all the time for marriage, so perhaps it is not such a big deal... but it still kind of FeelsWeirdMan...

Being next in line to a $1.5 billion revenue business sounds incredible on paper, but it would also mean I am committing myself to this business for the rest of my life (my uncle unequivocally wants the business to endure, so selling is pretty much out of the question...) Before you say it, there might also be restrictions imposed on selling the business as a condition of inheriting his shares, so it's not just a simple matter of waiting until he passes away to then sell the business. Also, I will eventually be responsible for the livelihood of 1000+ people and will suddenly become a visible figure in the local community / economy - it sounds exciting but also a little daunting at the same time.

TL;DR - I have an opportunity to eventually take over and own a family-controlled business that is doing $1.5Bn in revenue, but doing so would require me to change my last name. What would you do if you were in my shoes?