Can you give baby any last name you want?
Naming the Baby and Getting a Birth Certificate In most states, you may give your child any first, middle, and last name you like.
Can I give my baby my mother’s maiden name?
The first name of your child is the name you and others will call your child. You can use the mother’s last name or you can use both the mother’s last name and the father’s last name with a hyphen, such as “Gonzales-Reyes.” What you decide is up to you, just be sure it’s exactly what you want as a permanent record.
How do you name a baby with both parents’ last names?
Pros: One way to get around hyphens yet honor both parents is to create a new name from both parents’ last names. “My last name is James, my husband’s is Fitzgerald, and our child’s is Fitzjames,” says one BabyCenter mom. This allows your child to share both parents’ names while avoiding cumbersome hyphenated or double last names.
Can a father change the name of a child without marriage?
If a child’s mother is not married when he is born, his father must establish paternity in order to have rights to the child, including the right to change the child’s last name to the father’s name. Who Has the Legal Right to Name a Child?
Can a court force a child to change their last name?
Specific facts about a child’s life play into the court’s determination. Changing a baby’s last name will have a much lesser impact on the child than changing an older child’s last name, which can make it less likely for the court to grant a name change, since the child has spent all of her life with one name.
Should you name your baby after your partner or your partner?
Pros: Although this arrangement is much less common (4 percent of families, according to BabyCenter’s survey), it’s a good choice if sharing a name with the kids is more important to the mother than to her partner, or if she wants to encourage the child to identify with her heritage.