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Changing a minor's last name in NJ

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applexbean

Junior Member
My daughter's father and I were never married, but I agreed, against my better judgment, to give her his last name on the birth certificate. (We'll say it's Smith.) I am now married to another man and have other children, who share the last name as myself. (We'll say it's Jones.) My daughter is the only one in my immediate family without this same last name and I often worry that she will feel excluded, made fun of in school, etc.

Would I be able to change her name to Jones-Smith? Would I need her father's consent?

*Please note, this has nothing to do with hatred/resentment toward my ex. I simply do not want my daughter to go through what I had to as a kid when my mother remarried.
 
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Silverplum

Senior Member
My daughter's father and I were never married, but I agreed, against my better judgment, to give her his last name on the birth certificate. (We'll say it's Smith.) I am now married to another man and have other children, who share the last name as myself. (We'll say it's Jones.) My daughter is the only one in my immediate family without this same last name and I often worry that she will feel excluded, made fun of in school, etc.

Would I be able to change her name to Jones-Smith? Would I need her father's consent?

*Please note, this has nothing to do with hatred/resentment toward my ex. I simply do not want my daughter to go through what I had to as a kid when my mother remarried.
Thank you for using the search function to answer your extremely common, often-asked/answered question.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
No you can't change the child's last name without her FATHER's permission. OKay? Real simple. You don't get to make that choice unilaterally. And keep being impertinent and you will get no answers to any of your threads.
 

CourtClerk

Senior Member
My daughter is the only one in my immediate family without this same last name
Your daughter is also the only one in your immediate family who is not your husband's child or wife. So perhaps you can explain to your daughter that this is what happens when you have babies with that man, then get married and have babies with this man - and I seriously doubt she's going to feel excluded. With the divorce rate at about 60%, she knows TONS of other children who don't share the names of anyone else in their household. They did something... just like you.
 

Gracie3787

Senior Member
My daughter's father and I were never married, but I agreed, against my better judgment, to give her his last name on the birth certificate. (We'll say it's Smith.) I am now married to another man and have other children, who share the last name as myself. (We'll say it's Jones.) My daughter is the only one in my immediate family without this same last name and I often worry that she will feel excluded, made fun of in school, etc.

Would I be able to change her name to Jones-Smith? Would I need her father's consent?

*Please note, this has nothing to do with hatred/resentment toward my ex. I simply do not want my daughter to go through what I had to as a kid when my mother remarried.
You said that you want to change your daughter's name to Jones-Smith so that your daughter will have the SAME name as everyone else in the household. Is everyone else's name also hyphenated as Jones-Smith? If not, your reasons for wanting the change almost certainly will not hold water in court.

First, you need to ask her father if he will agree to the name change, if he does it will be real simple. If he doesn't agree, you can file in court and ask the court to decide, but you would need alot of very good reasons for the change, and the reason you posted is not good enough.
 

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