I want to change my two year old sons name to mine. I have full custody of my son. I was never married to his father and he doesn't pay child support. I moved to another state and he has only came to see his son once within the 10 months that we have lived in another state. What are the steps to take in changing my sons last name to mine? Do I need his fathers consent?

Yes, you need his consent in almost every State unless there are special circumstances.

Of course, I don't know where you are.

It is amazing to realize that most of the people who have questions on this Family Law forum don't appear to have a clue as to an elementary principle of our federal system in the United States: each state has it's own laws. And, while the laws tend to be similar, one cannot reliably answer a lot of these questions without knowing which state we are talking about.

I love it when it's more general and I do a ton of research and the person says, "Oh, by the way, I'm in the UK" (or somewhere else).