Unborn child's last name question.

I am having a baby at the end of the month and the baby's father and I are not married. We live together and are both over 21. When the baby is born, who's last name should it get? Do I have a choice and what are the legal issues that come with that choice? We live in Virginia.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by eviv:
[b]I am having a baby at the end of the month and the baby's father and I are not married. We live together and are both over 21. When the baby is born, who's last name should it get? Do I have a choice and what are the legal issues that come with that choice? We live in Virginia.[/b]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


I will try to explain to the best of my knowledge the repurcussions of all this:

First you can have the father named on the birth certificate and also give the baby his last name with his approval.

The legal issues surrounding that would be that, if you never marry him, he then has the same legal rights as you do and can take the child upon seperation and you would have to fight to get custody.
You also would get support faster in this situation if you were to be given custody of the child.

If you do not put the fathers name or give the baby the fathers last name on the birth certificate then he has no parental rights so to speak. If you never marry and you end up seperating, he would have to prove to the court he is the father by DNA testing. He would have to fight in court for parental rights and then for custody, visitation.
In this situation it could take up to a year to get child support established.

If I am wrong on any of this can someone please correct me?

Well, if i'm wrong will someone please correct me.(lol). Lady, you are correct to my knowledge also. The father of course will have to be persent at the time the birth certificate is filled out also. He must sign it if you do put his name on and give the child his last name. If he says no, then you can't do either thing. Lady went further in depth as to "what if" the relationship didn't work out so that you would know what would lie ahead for you in both scenarios.In my opinion(and you don't have to take it)if you are in a relationship with the father now, you should put his name on the birth certificate and give the child his last name if the father wants that.