my friend uses her name ofr her kids even though their names on teh birth certificate are different. but when her son went to high school it had to be as per birth cert, so dont think that will work.
ring and talk to someone. you may be able to hyphinate it i never looked into that
In NSW there isn't any way that you can change the names on the birth certificate unless you have the permission of both parents. You can hyphenate it or have your DD called by pretty much any name but it isn't official. Most schools now have the ability to record a "real" name and also the "preferred" name.
Also, I am pretty sure that she can't change her name herself until she is 18. But then she can do it without anyone's permission.
Realistically there are heaps of kids that use surnames that aren't what is recorded on their birth certificate.
Ok,
For anyone else in this situation:
I called legal aid and he said that in the event that you have no idea where the father is and he hasnt had contact with the child for a few years, contact your local court and the local magistrate will probabloy grant you an order to change the name without the fathers signature.
i have to say that would just be ideal. If that doesnt work ill just hyphenate her name, cos im pretty sure he cant do anything about that anyway.
Thanks for your help!!
A close friend of mine was in the same situation as you, she had 2 kids though. She just used her new husband's name as her kids surname. The were still legally known as the father's surname as far as documentation, bank accounts etc were concerned. She enrolled them in school as their birth surname but they were referred to as new husband's surname on the roll.
These kids are 23 and 21 now and both have changed their surnames legally by d-pol.
yeah,
i think that the only reason i will be able to is because i dont have a clue where he is. And he has not had anything to do with Nicole in years. even then it is still at the discretion of the magistrate. Im not sure it will be different on her birth certificate, i think she will just be issued a change of name thingy.......but i really dont have much of a clue.
If the magistrate says no, ill try and convince him to sign over his rights, then failing that i will just use our new name unofficially. Sounds like a plan to me. But its still almost a year before any of this will actually happen, cos i have to get married first. So ive got a while to work it all out, find my best option.
Actually, in my darkest moments, i considered offering to make his outstanding and future child support responsibilities go away (to my own financial hardship0. Im relieved i wont have to stoop to that level.
Thanks again everyone for the suggestions and info, the mud is settling and its al looking much clearer now.
I changed my name to Mums maiden name whenI was younger. We never had to get anything from my dad to let us do it, he is on my birth certificate. I changed what I went by at school when I was about 13 & then when I was 16 I changed it legally. My birth certificate now has my mums maiden name as my name from birth.
All we did was take in a letter from the school saying this is what I have been known by. Plus fill out the forms & pay the fee. Done.
yeah, i read something like that in the legal tomes i was trawling. im not sure exactly what the age is that you can do it, but the way to change your name as an adult is to make yourself commonly known and recognised by that name. I was thinking how the hell do you do that? just ask everyone to call you something different from now on??
Apparently, yes, thats exactly what you do.
So what about people with nicknames more common than their actual names? Should they legally be "fred" or "****" or whatever? It was really confusing.
If you can prove you don't know where the father is and that its in your DDs best interest to have the same surname as you then you can go through the Chamber magistrate at your local courthouse. You will have to go to court but its very quick and doesn't cost anything in the actual court.
PM me if you have questions cause i have done it but don't want to discuss here.
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