Im wanting to know if anyone has ACTUALLY applied to the court for an order to change their child's name without the other parents consent? And if so, were you successful or not?
I left my child's father at the start of 2015 and moved interstate due to a relationship breakdown. I initated and we attended mediation at early 2015 however have not heard from, seen or had any contact from him since that meeting. No family or friends from his side have ever attempted contact with my child.
Since then, I have gotten married and had another child and all I want is for my child to have the same surname as our family unit, child is now 5.
I'm seeking legal advice, but in the meantime wondering if anyone has experienced this first hand
9 Replies
So what if you break up and get married again, will you be wanting to change all their surnames to suit the new husband?
He can't be that hard to find, search him on facebook, if he has blocked you search his family. Bound to be someone on there.
Wow really.
It is about a child feeling apart of a family unit, with their parents that actually raised the . Not to live a life feeling like the odd one out with a surname that has no meaning or relation to anybody in their life.
If you don't have any advice or experience relating to the question asked, please do not respond. The question was not asking how to find somebody
Well to be really honest, the Dad was in this childs life for his first 2 to 3 years. The new guy can't have been in his life for more than 2 years. So he hasn't raised him. And by her reluctance to seek him out for permission I'm going to take a punt that she has made contact difficult for him, not the other way around. The fact that she moved interstate as soon as the relationship was finished supports that idea too. What if Dad was to come back on the scene now and wants to be in his childs life? Families are mixed these days, theres plenty of families that have different surnames to each other, it really is not a massive deal. My own kids have a different surname to me, they are teenagers now and have survived well with that. Doesn't seem worth messing with a childs identity to me.
Equally it does say that she initiated mediation and they have not heard back from him. Nocontact from him or any of his family. I do understand the wanting to move on, not actually wanting to change the way anything is. Unfortunately though, contact with him is necessary if you want this.
I agree, you’ve been with the guy for what, a couple of years? Don’t do it, you are barely over the honeymoon phase, this guy hasn’t proven himself to be a long term father to your child. Five years or so down the track, your child will be old enough to understand and decide for himself and his dad may even come back into his life. It’s lovely you have a partner who you love but it is too soon to erase his father like he never existed.
If the father is on the birth certificate you will need his permission to change it unfortunately. My sister was in the same situation and could not have their names changed no matter what she did. One neice who is now 20 changed her name to her stepfathers as soon as she turned 18. The other who is 18 next month is happy to keep her birth name.
When i was younger my mum went to court after me not seeing or hearing from my dad for over 10 years and i had to tell the judge that info and he ordered that it could be changed straight away. Even if father is on birth cert u can go thru court and they can rule it in.
My mother in law tried to have my partners name (as well as my partners brothers names) changed as his dad hadn't seen him for years but she was unsuccessful. None of them actually ended up changing their names even though they are all adults now, my partner is the youngest at almost 30 and his brothers are over 30.
I was able to change my children’s last name via the registry of births deaths and marriages in QLD without their fathers permission. I have a court order which stated I had sole parental responsibility.
I think if you’ve had no contact etc then applying to the courts for permission will be pretty simple. Good luck!!
FYI I have since separated from the father with whom my children share a surname (so their step father) and I haven’t once considered changing it even though I’m now in a new relationship and have a baby with the ‘new guy’ 😊 Their stepfather is their father in surname and raised them as such. It helped us feel all part of a family and GAVE my children an identity instead of a connection to guy (bio father) they didn’t know