Babys surname - legally where do we stand?

johanne

Im currently 5 months pregnant with my first baby, my partner and I are not married, but plan to be sometime in the future. Basically we are unsure as to what surname to give our baby. For arguments sake say mine in Jones and his is Smith.

Well i was quite happy at first for her to take Smith as her surname as i want her to be recognised as her dads child and to be honest i like his surname better than mine and would have no problem her being "Baby Smith" HOWEVER i have been told now that it may cause problems for us in the future and that if she and I dont have the same name and it may affect my legal rights as her mum?!! Is this true?

The solution everyone is suggesting is to register her with a double barrel name of Jones-Smith BUT both my partner and I hate double barrelled names :rolleyes: My niece has one (sorry sis if your reading this!!) and i cringe everytime she says it as our surname (mine and my sisters) is quite long and doesnt really sound right double barrelled!! I was bullied at school over my name and struggled to learn to spell it etc when i was younger as its so long, so would prefer my daughter not to have to go through that and learn an additional surname too!

My parents are pushing for me to keep my surname in the babies name "just incase" my partner leaves me (thanks for the vote of confidence mum and dad!) And say that i can use "known as" in school etc and just use my partners surnname. My partner is ok with this - im not so happy with it.....But suppose i have to consider it - how would this work legally?

BUT if this is the solution........What happens if we eventually got married would i have to change my daughters name by deed poll or re-register her or something again? Someone else mentioned she would be "illegitimate" until then?

vix2000

firstly if your partners name is on the birth certificate he has parental rights for the future no matter what name you give the baby. Giving it your name makes no difference whatsoeever.

If the fathers name doesn't go on the birth certificate and they do not have parental rights, you can change the name for about £40 by statutory declaration to whatever you want. I have just done this for my youngest.

Secondly illegitimate means 'born out of wedlock' therefore unless you plan to marry before the birth the baby will be illegitimate anyway, along with about 99% of the population including my children and grandchildren. Getting married after the birth doesn't change that, the baby will always be illegitimate.

I didn't think this entered anyones head nowadays!!!

dobbie82

i've given my children my partners surname, as if he eventuallt gets round to getting down on one knee then there's no faffing with deed polls etc.

you can change their names yes, but i am sure their original surname will always be on the birth certificate.

My dad was a bit put out when i gave my first child our family name but i think he's not bothered now.

Lillibet_2

My partner & I are married but I have kept my maiden name. Our son has my partners surname. Hubby has the same parental rights as me etc & to be honest I wouldn't have it any other way. Does cause the occasional confusion at the doctors, nursery etc but not a major issue.

HTH;)

ailuro2

I was the same- but it really didn't get debated so much, it just made lots more sense to give DD her Dad's surname, as I knew my name would be changing to his sooner or later, and I never really liked my surname either, and also got a bit of teasing about it at school.:rolleyes:

When we got married she was two, and it was bad enough changing MY name over everywhere I am registered, never mind chaniging hers too. Many of them want to see the original of the marriage certificate.

One other option is to change your own name now to 'known as Smith', I never liked the sound of it much, for some reason I tohught sounded a bit like crims who are known by a number of different names.:rotfl: Pregnant brain being what it was.

lynn44

Hi Johanne
I had the same problem 4 yrs ago,We arrived at the register office to register my son with his fathers name,and the registrar said, did I understand that could cause legal problems over his future, I had no idea,so had to have double barrel name which can be changed if we get married.

maryotuam

I was in the same position as you are, 26 years ago when our DD was born. I decided to give her her Dad's surname for simplicity. I did the same when my son was born. There never was a problem with school as unmarried parents are so widespread. The doctor's put my name on their records so there was no problem there either. (mother is m...... .........)

We did eventually get married years later and told the kids we had waited so that they could enjoy being at our wedding:rotfl:. I decided to continue using my single name which saved me the hassle of changing records.

You have the same rights as a mother no matter what name you or your child decide to use.

Keeping_Positive

I cant see why it would cause problems if the child took the fathers name. We have given our children the fathers surname and no one said anything about it causing a problem. The only thing I find is I have to remember is the school think im Mrs X not Miss Y.

Ang1981

Both of my 2 kids have there dads surname as we do plan on getting married one day .when we went to register DD nearly 4 years ago the registrar did say when we get married we will have to re register her and any other children that we have.
When you have the baby in hospital they will put your surname on the babys records and on it's little braclets it's just incase somthing happens in the hospital and you and your little one get split up so they know can match your name tags up

msmicawber

My children have their father's surname, not mine, and we've have had no problems, nor can I think of any. Teachers at their schools tend to call me Mrs Kidssurname, but it doesn't bother me. That's all, really.

LilMissEmmylou

the only problem ive had with my DD not having my surname was when i was getting mail redirected. I wanted mine and hers redirected but apparently because we have different surnames i would have to pay double!!!! couldn't believe it! and not only that but somebody with her surname would need to pay by cheque! i protested as much as i could but in the end i had to give up and didnt redirect her mail so no doubt bits of her stuff have gone awol