The right to change her name

I have a 13 year old daughter. Her biological father left when she was 5 months old. Our divorce became final when she was 13 months old. In the divorce papers I have full custody, care, and control of my daughter.

When she was 11 months old I met my current husband and we were married a year later. He has been a father to her in every aspect of the word, including being very open to her seeing her biological father. Despite the open line of communication that we tried to achieve, her biological father has not attempted to see her in seven years. He has not paid child support since she was two, has went so far as to quit jobs and move to another state to avoid it.

I don't try to seek child support because as long as I leave him alone he doesn't see her, and my lawyer said I'd probably never get it anyway.

Over the years we have talked about her changing her last name. At age 13 it seems more important to her now than ever. I want to know if this would be expensive? Would we have to involve the biological father (I would have a hard time figuring out how to get hold of him)? Can she change her last name without going through a formal adoption and would this ease the legal problems?

I really hope to get some advice on this issue. When our daughter was little we couldn't afford a legal adoption which (we were told at the time) would cost over $2500.
Recently I heard that we could change only her last name for a relatively small price and wouldn't have to track down her biological Dad because it isn't a legal adoption.
Also I read on another site that after six years her bio-Dad forfetted his rights. Any truth to that?

Does your daughter carry your maiden name or your ex? My daughters bio father has never been in the picture since day 1. I had my daughters name changed to my husbands last name when my daughter was 8. She carried my last name before we had it changed. I believe it cost me about $100.00. I didn't go through an adoption because I still want him to pay child support which is like getting blood from a stone but anyway... I had to go legal with this and fill out the proper forms then I remember I had to have it notorized and placed in our local paper. I remember too that I was suppose to have a letter of consent from her bio father but he wouldn't give me one. Luckily when I went to court they felt that since he didn't repond to his certified letters from the court and he didn't show up to contest what we were asking they went ahead and changed my daughters last name to my married name. Of course now he is trying to get visitation after neglecting her for 11 years. I hope he doesn't get this opportunity. Good Luck. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mmabar:
I really hope to get some advice on this issue. When our daughter was little we couldn't afford a legal adoption which (we were told at the time) would cost over $2500.
Recently I heard that we could change only her last name for a relatively small price and wouldn't have to track down her biological Dad because it isn't a legal adoption.
Also I read on another site that after six years her bio-Dad forfetted his rights. Any truth to that? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>



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