Is This Right?

tigtag02

that's_another_fine_mess! wrote: »

I had a sort of opposite problem- I wanted to register my daughter in my partner (her dad's) name but the registrar warned me that, if I did, she couldn't ever subsequently revert to my name, for instance if we split up in the future and I had other children and wanted all their surnames to be the same as mine. I'd always thought you could have any surname you want if you changed it by deed poll, but apparently not. She also said that, if my partner upset my daughter at some point in the future, for instance he went off and had children with someone else, my daughter might not want to still have his name and wouldn't be able to have mine. Just to complicate matters further, she also said that my having a different surname to my daughter would make it more difficult for me to act on her behalf, for instance in setting up bank accounts for her. All very confusing...

Apparently if I marry partner my daughter can automatically change her name to his without deed poll or whatever. As we were rather put on the spot by this unexpected information, we settled for a double barrelled surname but only use his part of it, just as we intended to do in the first place. I must admit I feel a bit daft when I have appointments and they read out my daughter's full name, as it's pretty long, but day to day it's fine!

This is rubbish - I really think that people NEED to receive th correct training before they start dishing out advice :mad:

My DD was registered in her *sperm donor's* name in 1993 - 5 years later (after he had been long kicked to the kerb) she asked if she could have the same name as me.

We changed her name by deed which basically renounces the use of the original name - she has been known by my name ever since.

Her birth cert will always show her original name but EVERYTHING (passport, school records, medical) other than that is now changed.

tigtag

nats3006

Just to let you know that i never got told i would have to re register my children when or should i say if me and OH get married!!!

Although she did tell us that something about if i wanted ds2 name to be same as his dads then i could never change it!!!

didnt really understand but ds1 is in dads name and never got told anything like this and he was born 2004 ds2 is 7 months!! so if this statement is true then its only just come out in the last 3 years ma cos my ds1 has turned 3 in april!!!

more_money_for_me

Thanks for all your replies. Seems like nothing much to worry about then. Think the registrar could do with some serious customer service training, with being in a great mood with a new baby it went straight over our heads, but it did occur to us that it could have really upset someone registering a death with her having such a poor atitude.

liz105

Id call the registrars office and make a formal complaint. Just make sure she doesnt take the call!

kelloggs36

I was advised to re-register my daughter because I married her father and she had been registered with her father's surname. The reason for this (I was told) was that it 'legitimises' them??!!! I never bothered and it doesn't matter really as far as I can tell. She is now 18 and wants to change her name by deed poll to that of her step-father which she can at any time she wishes.

Christmasshopper

I'm not sure if things have changed since my son was born, but all those years ago he took his father's nameand we were told that if we married we should re-register him. The reason was that as an illegitimate child he wouldn't automatically be able to inherit from his paternal side of the family if someone died without leaving a will.