I was an unwed mother at the time of my sons birth. The father was in the hospital with me when our son was born, however the hospital would not allow me to put the father on the Birth Certificate nor give him his name! He is now 30 years old and his birth certificate has his last name as my maiden name but his ID has his fathers name. I have searched several counties for the name change record and it can not be found. How do I go about getting his father added to the certificate and giving my son his fathers last name? His father and I got married after he was born then divorced about a year later! We had joint custody and then the father got custody and remarried. It has been a nightmare trying to find the name change that his father says he did in El Paso County Colorado. I did a records search in the counties they lived in and got no results!

Why doesn't your son just legally change his name?

You can do nothing since the son is no longer a minor, only the son can get his records

Is this something he wants to do also ?

But best and easiest, he merely goes and does a legal name change.

1. why did hospital not let you put father on, was the father or you a minor at the time and your or his parents would not allow ?

There are millions of non married people on the birth certificate. I would say you misunderstood what was happening at the time since there is no reason you could not have the babies daddy on the birth certificate when the child was born

It was in 1980 at memorial hospital in Colorado springs and no I did not misunderstand! I was extremely upset especially when the father was standing there next to me! 8 years later I gave birth to a daughter and was not married to her father... not only was I allowed to put the father on the certificate I was allowed to give her his name. In 1980 they would not give the birth announcement to the local paper because I was an unwed mother... they told me as much. However... since asking my question here I kept on doing research and found that I can add the father by going to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to get a form called Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity and another form called Report of Paternity Determination... send these in with the 20.00$ processing fee and if needed certified a 17.75$ processing fee and it shall be done :) I am basically handling the paperwork for my son as he is the one that wants it done. His ID has his fathers last name but his birth certificate doesn't and he needs to get an ID in Arkansas now and I have not been able to find the name change records that his father did in El Paso County Colorado... sent a request for the records search and it wasn't found! Sorry for the long story but hope the info about the forms will help someone in the future :) Thank you for your help in this matter. Rauline

You can do nothing about this. This is you son's "job" to do.

Again - why change the birth certificate? Why not just change his legal name?

I trust you are aware of that the father MUST sign the declaration and that the "child" must be 18 or 19.

"The form can only be signed after the child is born and it can be signed at the hospital or anytime until the child turns 18, or 19 if the child is still in high school. Only the biological father should sign the Acknowledgement of Paternity form. If you are not sure, do not sign the Acknowledgement. Instead, you should have a paternity test, sometimes called genetic testing. Please contact the nearest child support office for information about testing. If the mother was married during the 300 days before the birth of the child, OR if the mother was not married, but during the first two years from the birth of the child, a man continuously lived with the child and acknowledged the child as his own, then that man is considered the presumed father."

Yes, as the mother of a adult child, you can merely tell him what he can do, at this point it is up to the child to do this.

Yes I am aware that the father must sign the acknowledgment and he is the biological father and he would be willing to sign... however I took your advice and looked into a legal name change for my son and it seems it would be much less hassle and only cost a few dollars more. He will be the one taking care of it, I just needed to help him get started. Supposedly his father had his name legally changed when he was a minor and I had a search done in the county his dad said they were in plus the two counties they lived in after. No name change was found. So I have been trying to help him figure out what to do next and the legal name change will be the way he goes :) thank you for your time on my question :)

Excellent - sometimes the easier, faster way makes sense.