My son is 10 yrs old he has my last name. I do not know who is real father is but I have been with the same guy for over 11 years. How can I change my sons last name to the guys? Is there a fee or anything. we are not marrired and don't plan to but we are together.

It's a legal procedure that varies by State. Where are you? The Court may very well ask why you are changing your son's name to that of a person who is not related and who is not in a committed legal relationship with you. You break up, do you change his name again? I'm not asking you that. The Court very well might.

If you marry and your boyfriend adopts, then you can have the name change be part of the package.

You will have to check with the clerk of the court in your area for the rules. In my area, you will either 1. have to get permission of the bio father 2. explain to the court , and have them accept, the reason you can not.

If it is a matter of two guys, the court may want DNA tests to determine.

Merely changing his name does not give the non bio father any legal rights to the chilid. Plus does not change your name.

Getting married to him and having him adopt the child would do this also

I live in Texas I do not want to try and find my sons bio father. The person I am with now has been with me sice I was 2 months pregnant with my son. I would love to get marries but he does not. He just wants all of our kids to have the same last name. What should I do?

You CANNOT change his name without the consent of his birth father. There is no other way.

Your kids cannot all have the same name. I've already explained why.

It is not a matter of what you want, so you don't want to find bio father, you have to if you want to change the name, So this guy does not want to marry you, why, if he wants to be there and them have his last name, looks like he wants the gravy ( name) without any liability on child support for them.

I live in Texas I do not want to try and find my sons bio father. The person I am with now has been with me sice I was 2 months pregant with my son. I would love to get marries but he does not. He just wants all of our kids to have the same last name. What sould I do?

He just wants to play games. Hes even trying to avoid common law marriage in your state. You would mostly qualify for it by now except for his games.

It may not be necessary to get the bio father's permission, but you will have to show a good faith effort to try and contact him for permission. Unless you were raped, you should know who might be the father. The court will require that you identify all possible fathers and contact each to have a paternity test done.

If you don't want to do this then a court is unlikely to grant a name change.

Here is the law on the matter:
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/FA/htm/FA.45.htm#45.002

I live in Texas I do not want to try and find my sons bio father. The person I am with now has been with me sice I was 2 months pregant with my son. I would love to get marries but he does not. He just wants all of our kids to have the same last name. What sould I do?


You either DON'T know who the father is (which you said originally) OR you do know and you don't want "to try and find" him. It can't be both ways.

The Court will give you permission to serve him by publication if he cannot be located BUT you can't just change the boy's name without at least a very, very good attempt to find him and get his permission.

And, yes, your boyfriend has everything he wants with absolutely no commitment. Hope he doesn't get sick, die or leave you - you will have no legal standing.

The boy can just start using your BF's name. Simple as that. If it's good enough for the boy who became our current POTUS, it should be good enough for your son.

The boy can just start using your BF's name. Simple as that. If it's good enough for the boy who became our current POTUS, it should be good enough for your son.

AK is correct, anyone can use any name they want as long as there is no intent to defraud. However, there are times when a legal name is required. At those times, he will have to give his legal name. Schools may require a copy of the birth certificate when you register. You can ask that he me known by John Jones instead of John Smith and most schools will comply. If he decides to go into military service or get a government job, they will require his legal name as will Social Security. And if you ever want to get a passport, as a minor, you will need to get the bio father to sign off on it. So it is to your advantage to get this settled now legally.