Hello,
I recently moved from New York to South Carolina and am 9 months pregnant. The father and I are still very close but not together. I do not know if I should put his name on the birth certificate when the child is born. I do not plan on taking the father to court for child support and do not wish to take away any of his rights as a father. However, I am not familiar with South Carolina's policy on parent's rights. I would like to avoid all types of court and legal battles if at all possible. I would like to get married eventually, and when I do I would like to have my husband be able to adopt my child and for all of us to share the same last name. Is there a way to to this without having to have the father sign off his legal rights if his name is on the birth certificate? He already seemed opposed to the idea of another man adopting his child and I do not believe that he will sign a paper for that to happen. What should I do? I do not want to offend the father or take away his rights as a father, but I do want my child to be able to be adopted by my future husband should I get married. Please Help.

Whether you put the father on the because or not does not change his rights nor does it make it easier for your eventual husband to adopt. By not including him on the because you open yourself for a court process if he decides to exercise his rights. You also are falsifying an official document if you leave the father as unknown since you obviously know who it is.

Weather you have his name on the birth certificate or not... he will still be sought out if you try to have the child adopted and/or change the child's last name.

You will need his consent to change the child's last name.

And in the event of an adoption he would have to sign over his parental rights.

Please take it from me give the baby your last name or at least hyphenate it! it will prevent heartache later on! He can still be on the birth certificate even if u choose your last name. I would hyphenate it though

Should allways put the mothers name men r never around for ever and imagine after e gone few years , BANG, court order for custody, no name trust me a no its harsh,

Give the child his biological father's name. As a man who's been through this, I told my girlfriend I'd disown my child if it didn't bear my last name, and I meant it. If you don't give a crap about what the father or child have to say about this then its more your choice than the biological father's if he walks away from you. Giving a child another name signifies that the mother didn't think much of the biological father or that the child's paternity is in question. It also breaks the father's family name lineage. Believe me, it will bother the father and make the child feel misnamed forever. It also strips the father of his sense of parental rights. Don't worry about your future husband's sense of paternity, if he loves you and your kids he'll feel better knowing they appreciate his sacrifice for them especially when he didn't make them. Besides, whatever name you choose now you'd have to change anyway if and when you go the adoptive parent name route. It shouldn't bother any man that a woman's child from a previous relationship has their biological father's last name. I'm raising two kids like that along with two of my own and I don't mind one bit. It wouldn't be right for me to rename my step-children after me when I didn't make them. Kids come to know a father is the one who was there for them in throughout their life, not the one who made them anyway.

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