Wanting to Change Daughters Last Name.

Hi A.,
You have to start by changing her social security card. You can find all you need to know by going to www.ssa.gov
Best of luck to you.

If you contact your local university's law school, they should have students who can counsel you on the how's and why's of this plan. they charge very little if anything to do things like this.

If he is out of the picture for good, or is a bad guy, I certainly understand your desire. Good luck, J.

Hello I was wondering if you are truly doing this for her good or to get back at her dad. Even if you change her last name it is not going to change the fact that he is her father.I am a single mom with one son, my son has not seen or heard from his father in 12 years and my son will be 15 next month.When my son was younger i felt just like you i didnt want my son to have his last name,so i gave him mind.But now that i have grown up i feel different,i wish my son did have his father's last name because he came to me one day and said that the children at school was calling him a baster,because he did not have a father. This hurt me more then you would ever know, so please think think think before you make your finally choice. God bless you and your baby girl.

You need to check the states laws on this. Most of the time you have to have the father's consent to change the name.

Your best bet would be to consult a lawyer about this. Most of them offer a free inital visit and will outline to you what steps need to be taken. My sister-in-law has 3 kids from a previous marrriage and she was looking into changing their last names to my brothers since he is more of a dad to them than their real one is, and more than willing to adopt them. She was told that the father on the birth certificate has to be willing to sign away his rights to the children in order for that to happen, so something similar is probably required to change her last name to match yours.

When I changed my own last name a number of years ago, I started by going to the town hall and asking what I needed to do. (You may have to go to the county clerk's office, depending on where you live.) I needed a judge's order to affect the change, which I secured by writing a letter explaining why I wanted to the change and providing supporting documentation (birth certificate and marriage license). I then had to make the change to Social Security, driver's license, bank accounts, etc., which was by far the more time-consuming part of the process. With a four-year-old, however, you shouldn't have too much of that to go through. A word of caution: I did this before 9/11, so there may be a few more hoops to jump through. Good luck, and don't give up!

My husband and I went through this with one of his children about 11 yrs ago. It is pretty easy. If I remember correctly you need to get an atty, they will put some sort of ad in the paper, something stating that you want to change the last name and her dad will have so long to contest it. If he doesnt' cintest it you go to court tell the judge why and usually they will just sign the papers and reissue a new birth certificate with the new last name.
Good Luck!

You definitely don't need an attorney for this. I just changed my son's last name from mine to his step-father's. Depending on your county (who is the actual authority for name changes) you can probably fill the paperwork out online and take it to the clerks office in the Probate division. They will charge you a fee for filing and for the certified mail service to the father (if you know his address-if you don't you just tell them that). Then they run it in a legal news paper and after that you have your "hearing", which consists of sitting there until the Magistrate has signed and photocopied the docs. That's it. They take care of sending the Judgment Entry to Vital Statistics, you just have to send it to SS.

A., I was born to 26 year old unwed parents in 1974. At that time there were lots of "rules" about what to do about names for children like me. My mother gave me my father's last name without even questioning the issue. I think this was a big mistake. My father paid my mother very little child support compared to the amount of money he earned, our relationship has never been close despite my mother's efforts to cultivate a positive one and the man is simply unable to share his life with anyone. Now he rewrites history saying that he did not want to make me stay with him every other weekend or two weeks in the summer. I don't ever remember being asked. This is one of hundreds of examples.

If you honestly believe that this is the best thing for your daughter, then do it and explain it to her later.

I have been looking into this myself... before my son starts school also. All you have to do is file to change her last name... and they will send a notice to her father. Within 30-45 days you will have a court date... which he could show up to and fight it... but chances are he won't. Even if he does show up... he has no grounds to fight it. So it takes only a short amount of time & it only costs about $100. You can get all the information on the county website. And you don't even need an attorney or anything. Good luck... I'm sure you won't have any trouble!

A.,

Hi there. My son is now going on 10 and I went through the exact same thing you did. His (loser) father promised to he would be there, so I gave him his last name, guess what, he's not! I live in the Cleveland area, so you would go downtown to the Court House and I believe its on the 2nd floor, you go and fill out an application for a name change (call first to be sure thats where it is still located), but it costs $100 per name change. They place an ad in the legal papers of your city and his city. My advice, tell them you don't know where he is, it will make the process run a whole lot smoother. At the time, my sons father lived in Louisana, but that was all I knew. You do not need to divulege more information than they need. After six weeks, you will get a letter telling you that they heard no response (meaning your ex didn't see the ad and your name change is on its way to being accepted) -- you will get an appt. time to go back downtown and complete the process. At this time, you will be called into an office with a magistrate and asked to swear that the information you gave was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, you say yes (I believe raising your right hand) and then they ask a few more questions, you sign some paperwork and you get an original copy of the name change. Then you can start sending away for the documents you need to update that name change (i.e. SS card, etc.).

One piece of advice I can give you, only because I went through it, my son's father is STILL on his birth certificate as father, reason being, I was going to terminate his rights, but my lawyer indicated to me that if he passed away, my son is entitled to his SS benefits or if he came into a large sum of money, my son is also entitled to that money.

I hope this information helps you. Its unfortunate that these men know how to have the fun making the babies, but don't know how to stick around afterwards. I do know that my son is better off without him.

Good luck to you!!!!

S.

We just adopted a girl last September. For us the name changing was all done through the county and our adoption lawyer. After we had the signed certificate we had her SS number changed, with the advice of our lawyer due to other parents having it in the past. We went to our local SS office and in about 4-6 weeks got a new number and card. From there we were able to change the name with schools, doctors, pharmacies, etc.

You may want to go through a lawyer too before doing this. Your daughter's biological father SHOULD be paying support whether he has an active role in your daughter's life or not. She is entitled to that. Good luck to you.

been there my daughter had my name at birth b/c he wouldnt sign the birth cert. (shocker should have seen that as a warning sign) any way somehow he talked me into changing her name to his.... that lasted about 3 weeks but i did have to go to court to get it changed back along with some visitation things re arranged... its not a big deal tho just get a lawyer...