Me & fiancé are going to get married in the future (no time soon) and she has a daughter. She doesn't know who the bio dad is & don't have a clue. There's no name on the birth certificate. The girl is 3 now. I'm the only father she know. How can we change her last name to mine legally? We live in va.

You can probably adopt the child, I think, if you want, or you could just go to the court and request a name change for a minor.

I was told that the bio dad had to be involved somehow.

I was told that the bio dad had to be involved somehow.

Maybe, but if you're getting married and the biological father is unknown, I think that you would be able to be the "step-father" and be able to make decisions like that, I'm not positive though.

If it is necessary for the biological father to be involved though, your fiancé will have to find him. =/

Talk to a family lawyer.

If there is no attempt to contact bio-dad, then what happens when 2 years from now a guy shows up, wants a DNA test and access to his kid? If he claims he wasn't even informed of her birth until recently, then he might have a case.

Talk to a lawyer. They'll be able to tell you what steps you need to take.

i was told that the bio dad had to be involved somehow.

Maybe, but if you're getting married and the biological father is unknown, I think that you would be able to be the "step-father" and be able to make decisions like that, I'm not positive though.

If it is necessary for the biological father to be involved though, your fiance will have to find him. =/



Talk to a family lawyer.
If there is no attempt to contact bio-dad, then what happens when 2 years from now a guy shows up, wants a DNA test and access to his kid? If he claims he wasn't even informed of her birth until recently, then he might have a case.
Talk to a lawyer. They'll be able to tell you what steps you need to take.

what if she was attacked by someone unknown @ random
there's no contacting the bio-dad because he is unknown & as a result I'm not acting as the "step-father" but as the dad.

thanks for the help

Well, I don't know anything about the law regarding that situation. :(

So you don't know how we should go about it

I'm guessing that if you went to talk to a lawyer, they would be able to tell you what to do to change the last name and avoid any backlash from the biological father in the future.

Sorry I'm not more help. Good luck!

If that's the case, you NEED to talk to a lawyer. Adoption is probably going to be your best option, and there probably won't be a lot to it, really.

Call a family lawyer, explain the circumstances, and they should be able to tell you how to proceed from there.

Basically, the law wants to make sure a good faith effort has been made to give the bio father his rights. But if the child was the result of a rape, then the bio father would have forfeited his rights. All that would be necessary is submitting a copy of the police report as part of the adoption petition.

If no police report was filed, then your fiancée would probably have to filke an affadavit on how she got pregnant.

Bottomline here is you can adopt without the bio-father's consent, but you need an attorney to file the proper paperwork.

Also, courts look for commitment and stability when it comes to granting an adoption. They will be more willing to grant one if you are married.

Should we try the online name change companies or just go through a lawyer?

Again you need to adopt and you need a lawyer to prepare it.