last name change

[modo]

My boyfriend has signed an acknowledgement of paternity for his 18 month old son that lives in a different state. We assume the mother signed one, she has been or was on temporary asst for needy families through family services. The child has her last name but my boyfriend would like to have it changed to his. When he goes to court for child support because of family services, can he have this done without the mother present or aware? Or will she be contscted regarding this? Can she fight it since there has been a lack of involvement or will courts even take that into consideration since the mother and baby moved 9-10 hours away when baby was only 2 months old?


Any advice helps enormously!

We are in MS & she and baby are in MO

 

[Zephyr]

of course she would be contacted


and of course she can fight it

it will not be handled in a cs hearing anyway

 

[seniorjudge]

My boyfriend has signed an acknowledgement of paternity for his 18 month old son that lives in a different state. We assume the mother signed one, she has been or was on temporary asst for needy families through family services. The child has her last name but my boyfriend would like to have it changed to his. When he goes to court for child support because of family services, can he have this done without the mother present or aware? Or will she be contscted regarding this? Can she fight it since there has been a lack of involvement or will courts even take that into consideration since the mother and baby moved 9-10 hours away when baby was only 2 months old?


Any advice helps enormously!

WHEN POSTING A QUESTION, YOU MUST INCLUDE THE NAME OF YOUR STATE

 

[Halls]

Your boyfriend would have to file in family court a seperate motion to change the last name. Mom MUST be notified of the hearing as she has to be served legally, and she can contest it.

My suggestion, before your boyfriend files in court wasting a bunch of lawyer fees and making the mom waist money she could be spending on the child and wasting attorney's fees, I suggest your boyfriend talk to the mom and ask her if she would agree to hyphenate the name so the child can have both parents last name. It would save a court fight and you never know what a judge will do. Some will change last names and some won't go there.

 

[modo]

of course she would be contacted


and of course she can fight it

it will not be handled in a cs hearing anyway

so there has to be another court hearing?

 

[ceara19]

so there has to be another court hearing?

Yes, and if mom contests, it may be more that one hearing. It's no longer assumed that a child HAS to carry the father's last name.

 

[modo]

Is there anything he can do that would look good to judge or , I hate to say this, but make the ex seem less favorable?

Would it matter at all do you think that she is an only child and he has 2 siblings? I hope not

 

[ceara19]

Is there anything he can do that would look good to judge or , I hate to say this, but make the ex seem less favorable?

Would it matter at all do you think that she is an only child and he has 2 siblings? I hope not

Nope, and if he even tries, it may look BAD to the Judge. A name change wouldn't have anything to do her character and the fact that she is an only child could be used as a reason by HER not to change the name (carrying on the family name). When a woman has a baby, she can put ANY name she wants on the BC. It doesn't HAVE to be dad's, it doesen't even have to be hears. You can name your baby Jane Doe Trump if you wish.

Why does he want the name changed?

 

[modo]

I'm not sure I agree, but he thinks of it as a tradition. I've tried to explain to him that tradition has changed and that it might be in babies best interest.We are so far away and he works 10 hours a day 6 days a week, he won't be able to spend much time at all with his son. I sort of think it might be confusing for a kid to grow up in a home with last name different than mothers. Any opinion?

 

[justalayman]

I'm not sure I agree, but he thinks of it as a tradition. I've tried to explain to him that tradition has changed and that it might be in babies best interest.We are so far away and he works 10 hours a day 6 days a week, he won't be able to spend much time at all with his son. I sort of think it might be confusing for a kid to grow up in a home with last name different than mothers. Any opinion?

What kind of traditions does his family have.

Do they all go around having children with women they are not married to and then insist on placing their name on the result of their conquests?

The tradition is you get married, have children with that woman and the children get your name.

I believe trying to change the name of the child to be different than the CP mothers is wrong. Although society is more accepting of all the folks out there running around having children without any real meaningful relationship, I believe it still places a burden on the children that have to deal with that.

Unless the dad happens to actually be a Trump or Gates, there would be no advantage to placing dad's name on the child.

 

[modo]

lol good point

 

[Halls]

UNless dad is filing for joint custody and standard visitation I don't see how in the world a judge is going to grant a name change. A dad who lives far away from his child, hardly going to see the child is not going to help the case for a name change. A judge will likely frown on that.

Judges do change last names sometimes, heck it happend in my case, but mine is nothing near to what yours is and sounds to me like if dad wanted the child to have his last name he should have married the mom and made a family with her!

 

[Halls]

message deleted

 

[ceara19]

I'm not sure I agree, but he thinks of it as a tradition. I've tried to explain to him that tradition has changed and that it might be in babies best interest.We are so far away and he works 10 hours a day 6 days a week, he won't be able to spend much time at all with his son. I sort of think it might be confusing for a kid to grow up in a home with last name different than mothers. Any opinion?

If he goes into court and attacks her character, this could work against him in MANY ways. First of all, how do you think it makes him look to have had a child with such a person. On top of that, if mom is such a bad person, wouldn't dad be better off spending the money to get his child away from that influence, instead of blowing it on a name change? See where I'm going with this?

 

[modo]

UNless dad is filing for joint custody and standard visitation I don't see how in the world a judge is going to grant a name change. A dad who lives far away from his child, hardly going to see the child is not going to help the case for a name change. A judge will likely frown on that.

Judges do change last names sometimes, heck it happend in my case, but mine is nothing near to what yours is and sounds to me like if dad wanted the child to have his last name he should have married the mom and made a family with her!

lol another good point