Ask Me Help Desk - Want To Give My Daughter My Married Name!

I Had A Child With A Man About Ten Years Ago. At Birth I Gave Her My Last Name. At This Time On Her Birth Cert. In The Place Where The Fathers Name Goes Here Is,
"-----------" In The Space. This Just Means That There Is No Father Named. I Would Like To Change Her Last Name From My Maiden Name To My Married Name.

For Those Of You That Can Answer This Question, You May Need To Know The following.

No My Husband Isn't Her Birth Father.

Her Father Was In Jail For 8 out Of 9 years.

He Has Only Involed In Her Life On & Off.

At Birth He Has Absent For About 4 months.

Then Was Involved For About 6 - 9 months Before He Went To Jail.

Just Within The Year & a Half He Was Released.

At This Time He Took Me To Court To See If He Could See Her.

The Courts Granted Him The Right To See Her For 4hrs every Sunday.

This Went On For About A Year.

Since Sept. of 06 he Has Not Seen Her.

Why can't you just let her have your name? Does she want her step dads name? Is there a problem with an insurance company? I only ask because when my husband was a boy, his mother change his last name to her new husbands, only to find out that it was killing my husband because he loves his real dad. He fought his mom about this, (at age11) and they had it changed back. He just felt so ashamed for his real dad, you know? I don't really know if this would be the case for your daughter or not. If she knows her real dad then I would suggest leaving it alone and not fixing what isn't broken. Does that make any sense? I hope so.

If your daughter is willing, why not have her name legally changed to your new married name? I don't understand changing her birth certificate.

My sister and I have been charting our family tree and I can just imagine the confusion your future generations may encounter should they try to trace your line. Her father may not be the best of men, but he did help create her and as such has at least one redeeming quality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by startover22

Why can't you just let her have your name? Does she want her step dads name? Is there a problem with an insurance company? I only ask because when my husband was a boy, his mother change his last name to her new husbands, only to find out that it was killing my husband because he loves his real dad. He fought his mom about this, (at age11) and they had it changed back. He just felt so ashamed for his real dad, you know? I don't really know if this would be the case for your daughter or not. If she knows her real dad then I would suggest leaving it alone and not fixing what isn't broken. Does that make any sense? I hope so.

My daughter wants her step fathers last name.

We are a family of almost 6 & this makes her feel as if she isn't the same as us.

My Husband & Myself along With are 2 other children all have the same last name.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emland

If your daughter is willing, why not have her name legally changed to your new married name? I don't understand changing her birth certificate.

My sister and I have been charting our family tree and I can just imagine the confusion your future generations may encounter should they try to trace your line. Her father may not be the best of men, but he did help create her and as such has at least one redeeming quality.

My daughter wants my husbands last name.

Her Father we believe won't give us the go ahead.

All I need to know is,

Can I Change her last name from my madian name to my married named without having to get her father to say yes

No, unfortunately you do have to have the father's consent.

You DO have to have the fathers consent. That happened to my brother. He had a child out of wedlock,when the baby's mother married,her husband wanted to adopt her.He would not sign the papers,as it would have severed all his paternal rights,therefore there was no adoption.

As all states are different. Here in MI I could not have my daughters last name changes from her dad's (we were never married) to my own. However I was told that the child has the right to be called whatever they want, so she may use whatever last name she wants it will just not be legally changed. Also in MI, at the age of 12 the child can go in themsleves and have their last name legally changed

In Wisconsin it's a very simple process... I have a friend who was in a VERY similar situation ex was in and out of jail... when he paid child support ( which was never ) he would take the Daughter then when about 3 years had gone by with no contact at all. Her daughter (I believe she was 6 or 7) asked her mom if she could have her last name so they would be the same like all her friends. Her mom went to the court house and had her name changed all she had to do was put an ad in the news paper stating that she was changing her daughters name and if anyone had a problem with that the needed to contact the court house by a specific date and since dad doesn't read the papers and I think she might have put it in a paper some where obscure to be sure he didn't find it .
I see nothing wrong with what you are wanting to do... now if your talking you want to have your husband Adopt her... that would be different , But if it is just a name change , at least in WI... its not a big deal... my 9 year old hates his dad and had changed his last name to Smorne which is a mixture of my last name and dads last name its not on anything official at school but I do write in the paper work that this is what he wants to be called and I would appreciate their cooperation.
I also have a friend who was pregnant when she met her husband and when her daughter started school she just wrote her married name like it was her daughters last name , she has never had any problems with this... even though her birth certificate has a different last name... Good luck I hope you can get her name changes with out a lot of hassle !