What age can a child change their name legally with only 1 parents consent?

[Mildez]

Just wondering if anyone knows what age a child can change their name by at births, deaths and marriages with only onw parent consenting? I thought it was 16 and then they could chance their name without parental consent. My friend who is in a similar situation to me said she was told when her son was 12 with one parents consent he can legally change his name. Is this correct?

My DD is almost 11. On her birth certificate she has her biological fathers surname. On her medicare card she is known by my maiden name. This has always been the case. She has always been known as and enrolled in daycare and then school, sporting events and health records etc as my maiden name although technically she is known by something else on her birth certificate which she has never known as.

Ex and I seperated when DD was a baby and he went almost 9yrs with no contact. He now has access to DD as he has only wanted it in the last 10months (since child support said having her x amount of time is the only way he can reduce his child support). Anyway since DD has been seeing her father and now has a relationship with her of course he is insisting her name is his name which she isn't happy about. She wants to remain what she has been known as and has a very strong bond with my family so she is not happy about him trying to force her name to be different. His contacted the school to insist her name is different to what she is enrolled as and has created a facebook account for her with his name (she already had one)

So I was under the impression we would have to wait until she was 16 and then she can choose what she wants but now I have heard its 12 with my consent. Is there anyone out their that can clarify this?

[Amity]

It's 18 unless you have a Court order.

[Mildez]

Do you know what changing DD's name will entail Divvy? Her father definately will protest although I have proof of his threats against me that if I drop the maintaence owning he will sign the forms. As DD has never been known as the name on her birth certificate will this improve our case? Her health records and all school reports, sporting etc are in the name she wants to change it to and always have. If its to difficult then we will just wait but if not I'd like to go ahead and have it changed for her.

[nothing2lose]

Hi

I could almost have written your post word for word. I have just been to court about it, amongst other things. I ended up dropping my application with regards to this matter as both my barrister and solicitor, and my ex's solicitor said I could change it without his consent given that I have sole responsibility and therefore, technically, I am dd's sole guardian. I have not yet tried it. Will let you know how i go!

[nothing2lose]

Ps once she is 12 she has to give her consent to have her name changed. Perhaps that is what your friend meant

[Mildez]

Perhaps that is where my friend got confused nothing2lose. We are currently in mediation over custody for DD. I never went for sole custody as he vanished out of her life for so many years and at the time there didn't seem any point. Now we are in the process of mediation with the plans on going to court as he is been very unreasonable and nothing has been solved. DD also doesn't want to see him near as much as he is requesting her (which is every 2nd weekend with the plan on increasing that as he builds a relationship with her) Given his absence out of her life and her wishes I feel I'm been very reasonable and been an advocate for her wishes by now following this through although unfortunately at a huge financial cost to us. Seeing as we are going to court anyway I thought maybe I could just throw in the name change also whilst I am there seeing as she is known by one name and his trying to insist she changes to what is on her birth certificate (Geez I was stupid for ever putting it on there in the first place. Thank the Lord for my mother who did my medicare card when DD was born)

[beckoes]

Thats so sad that her dad is trying to force his name on her. I had my biological fathers surname till i was 10 and my mum re-married. He had to sign a court order thingo to say he aggreed to the change, which he did, but wasnt too happy about it, but i wanted the same last name as my mum and family.
It made a big difference to me that my name was the same as my mums, hugs to your DD, hope your ex wakes up to himself soon and realises hes being a bit of a ......

[Banx]

Im in two minds about my sons last name being the same as his dads.

His father is a good man, just a lousy partner... so we split over 18 months ago.

BUT.... I do wish I had put my surname on our DS's birth cert.. but we decided that we would put his dads on there as we were planning on getting married etc.. but obviously that never happened.

I believe it is 18yrs old that children can legally change their names without both parents consent.

[Fleur]

Do you know what changing DD's name will entail Divvy? Her father definately will protest although I have proof of his threats against me that if I drop the maintaence owning he will sign the forms. As DD has never been known as the name on her birth certificate will this improve our case? Her health records and all school reports, sporting etc are in the name she wants to change it to and always have. If its to difficult then we will just wait but if not I'd like to go ahead and have it changed for her.

Panda has been known by my married name since she was 2, her school records, medical records, bank account etc are all in my married name. The only thing she has had to use her birth name on is her passport application.

I haven't been through the process of having it legally changed because I know XP will never agree to it; but also because it lets her make the decision when she's older. She may feel very differently about it at 18 or 20 to what she did at 12 or 14.

It hasn't ever been a big deal because she has only ever had to use it for her passport; if it matters a lot to her than no doubt she will do it of her own accord when she is able.

It's a pity that your ex is being so difficult about it, he sounds like a royal PITA actually. At the age of 11 I think the wishes of a child should be taken into account at the very least, by the parents. Unfortunately it's just another thing to use as a bargaining tool in many cases

You might find though that if you did go to court they would take her feelings into account, I don't know how much weight they would give them.

Best of luck with it, I hope you can get it sorted.