anyone familiar with changing a child's last name?

and could lend some advice?

situation is child has maiden name of mother with no father on original birth certificate. mother marries and now has married name. wants to change child's last name to new married name to be the same as the entire family. when researching online it keeps stating needs other parent's approval to change but there is no other parent available to sign off. which was the whole reason of using maiden name to begin with.

anyone know how to change?

hope that wasnt too confusing.
TIA

Re: anyone familiar with changing a child's last name?

You'll need a lawyer and will have to go to court to have a judge decide if it is in the child's best interest.

Re: anyone familiar with changing a child's last name?

My cousin did this but in another state and her husband had to file for adoption- I googled and found this for you- looks like in NYS you have to file it with the Supreme Court- How to change a child's name

Re: anyone familiar with changing a child's last name?

Re: anyone familiar with changing a child's last name?

i was gonna say... i think they would have to do an adoption. the new husband would have to adopt the child.
i have a friend who had a baby when she was 17- is no longer with the father, father didn't really have a relationship with the child. my friend is now 28, and has been married for a couple years now to a new guy. they went to court for her new husband to formally adopt her son. i beleive that meant his birth father had to sign away any legal rights, too..... not sure how it works if theres no birth father available....
I don't think an adoption like this would be TOO expensive- probably just lawyer fees. its not like an adoption where you're being matched with a child and working with an agency and all that.... not sure, though.

Re: anyone familiar with changing a child's last name?

As far as I know -- the new husband has to adopt the child there can not just be a simple name change in this instance.

Re: anyone familiar with changing a child's last name?

You have FM

Re: anyone familiar with changing a child's last name?

My brother had to do this with my niece.

Is the birth fathers name on the birth certificate? If so- they will need to get him to waive all rights to the child. Then the child can be legally adopted by the new parent. If there is no birth father on the BC then you can go ahead with adoption proceedings.

But either way to change the name of a minor child legally it had to go through an adoption process.


ETA- the only thing is that if the birth father shows up years from now to claim parent rights then she will have a problem. If she knows who the father is she should contact him and have him sign the waiver even though he isnt on the BC

Message edited 8/16/2011 12:05:36 PM.

Re: anyone familiar with changing a child's last name?

adoption process it is! thank you so much for all of your responses!

Re: anyone familiar with changing a child's last name?

I'm dealing with this right now... I'm waiting on the lawyer to give me the recommendation of a lawyer in Brooklyn that can help me.

In my case, paternity was established and bio-dad's name is on the BC (my son has my maiden name). But b/c bio-dad is VERY WILLING to help us with the adoption process so the lawyer said it should be pretty easy. Otherwise they have to track down the bio-dad.

I don't know if you need to do that if he was NEVER on the BC though...