Un-Married Parents - Whose Surname Does Your Child Have and Why?

anotheruser

I'm specifically looking for couples who have children but not married.

Does the child have the surname of the father or mother, and why?

lulu_92

I think me and OH will give his last name as we will get married eventually, we just can't afford it yet.

McKneff

Im intrigued as to why you would want to know????

Confusedandneedhelp

My biological son has his mothers surname, so he matches his two brothers (my unoffically adopted children). No big deal, as even if we got married, im not bothered about her changed her name.

alwaysskint96

All my 3 ( 2 different dads) have my surname TBH i dont understand why I would give them a partners name if we were not married I know loads of people with families full of different surnames- couple of kids both with different dads each taking their surname and Mum has a different one - now WHY??

BTW when i got married i kept my maiden name- and so still carried same name as my kids. If husband has been worried overs names then he was welcome to change his to mine

Confusedandneedhelp

Confusedandneedhelp wrote: »

My biological son has his mothers surname, so he matches his two brothers (my unoffically adopted children). No big deal, as even if we got married, im not bothered about her changed her name.

Sorry quick add on- with tradition, he has my name as his middle name (russian tradition), this could work for other people

Counter

alwaysskint96 wrote: »

TBH i dont understand why I would give them a partners name if we were not married

What would you have done in the situation where your partner couldn't understand giving them the name of partner to whom they are not married (i.e. your name)? Would you have had to come up with a third option?

pollyanna24

lulu_92 wrote: »

I think me and OH will give his last name as we will get married eventually, we just can't afford it yet.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Supposed to get married when our eldest was 10 months, but he "changed his mind" (we were going through problems, but this only came about once she was born). Still managed to conceive another one and then he left when she was two months old (I felt that I had to give the youngest his surname so she wouldn't be different from her sister.

Emkayoli

My first has my surname as her father wasn't there to register so she had to have mine. But my youngest has 'our' surname because we have the same surname...

So it ended up with all 4 of us with the same surname though me and dad aren't married.

jackieblack

Most children of unmarried parents that I know have double barrelled surnames taken from both parents surnames eg parents are Miss Smith and Mr Jones, children are Smith-Jones.
When one couple got married Mum & children all changed their surnames to Dad's.
When another couple got married, the parents both changed their surnames to the same double-barrelled one as their children.


I alos know one family where the parent's agreement, prior to the birth of their first child, was that any girls would take Mum's surname and any boys would take Dad's. (I can't see how that wouldn't be confusing at all! :doh:)

moomoomama27

I used my maiden name with my first as I was unmarked, and never married her father. I'm so glad I did.

IMO children of unmarried couples should take the mothers name, then have it changed to the married name should marriage occur!