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Can the x change our children's last name?

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J

Jason Knight

Guest
What is the name of your state?
Oregon

Can my x-wife change the last name of our children without my permission? She currently has primary custody with me having visitation, however I was under the impression she couldn't change their last name. While talking to my children who are 6 and 4 years old, they were spelling their names out for me, they used her new married name instead of their real last name. Can she do that legally or is there something I can do to correct this?

Thank you for any help and advice. Have a good day.
 


H

hound dog

Guest
No she cannot ! you need to say something to her b.c all that is doing is confusing the children. Also you need to correct the kids when they spell the wrong names. Good Luck! Oh and besides once they get in to public schools they will have to spell the last name that is on their birth certificate.
 

CMSC

Senior Member
hound dog said:
Oh and besides once they get in to public schools they will have to spell the last name that is on their birth certificate.

I just wanted to comment on this statement. My children use my husbands last name (no name change done yet), my daughter is in school and they have yet to correct her spelling her name with hubbys last name. I enrolled her under his name but listed her bio father on the paperwork.
Now my ex sister in law did this same thing to her kids and she got taken back to court by my brother. She was ordered that she couldn't use her married name for the kids
The difference in these two situations is in my case there is a deadbeat and in my brothers case there is an excellent involved father.

Now, you can take your ex back to court and have it put in writing that she will not use any other name than the one given to the children.

There is something interesting though. If you look up name change laws (in my state anyway) it lists reasons for a childs name to be changed, one of those reasons is if the child has used this name for a long period of time and is accustomed to it. So on one hand it is supposedly illegal to use someone elses name on documents without a name change BUT to get a name changed if you have used someone elses name for a long time you have a great chance of getting it done. Wierd, just thought I would share that with you.


Remind your children of what their name is. Show them a birth certificate and tell them that is how they should right their name because it was given to them in love from you when they were born.
 
J

Jason Knight

Guest
Thank you

Thank you, I thought it was illegal for her to do that. I remember reading it somewhere but wasn't sure where. I just wanted to verify and make sure.

Does anyone by chance know what type of form or paperwork I'd need to file to take that back to court? With the child support she has been doing, which unfornately is a lot considering she isn't working anymore, at least until the adjustment goes through I can't afford a lawyer. So most of the stuff I've been fighting in court has been through me filing and going to court, its just the matter of knowing what paperwork I need to file that always stumps me.
 
H

hpatt

Guest
You could go to your local law library, which is probably in superior court that is where custody, etc. takes place and either look up the form or ask one of the staff.
 

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