Can a mother change minor child's name without father knowing?

[lmnopia]

If two people have a child without getting married, is the mother legally allowed to change the child's last name?

My husband's ex says she changed their child's last name. They were never married, and the child is now 6 1/2 years old . When the child was born, paternity was acknowledged, signed to and my husband's last name was given to the child. Later she even asked for a paternity test, which was done and it was reconfirmed that he was the father. No legal/physical custody has been established through the courts, the child has just always lived with the mother and he didn't contest it. She now recently says that she change the child's last name.

Is that legally possible?

And without the father's knowledge?

Can she just remove her father's last name?

We live in NY.

 

[rdrcoroner]

I changed my childs name

I worked for DA in Calif in Family Court & Paternity for Child Support Division. Birth Certificate is not considered a sole legal document for identification. I went to social security and presented my daughters birth certificate & mine. I changed to last name to my maiden name. You can change a name to anything as long is not used for fraud. You are not changing the paternity or the fathers rights..and you are not changing via adoption. You are changing identity only through a process that is tracked by Social Security. You are not changing the birth certificate . For a passport..you would show the change Social Security (a Federal agency) used to get from point a to point B. The basic logic is that a woman doesn't even have to take a man's name by marriage. Neither does a child. Paternity is paternity. Father provides benefits to a child based on childs ssn for id not the childs name. Many people never marry. Paternity could be established 15 years down the road and child could be given any name the birth mother chooses, usually her last name..child could essentially never have fathers name. If father wanted more rights with this child he should have addressed that via custody and court. By no marriage..being a father does not give him rights unless the court establishes them for him. Paternity does give the child enheritance rights and to SSA benefits if father predeceases child. If mother marries different man..he would have to file for adoption of child and biological father has to be notified "if they can find him". You need to find out how childs name was changed but I am sure it was not by adoption. Hope this helps.