Re: Spoiler Tuesday 1st Dec.

On 09/12/2010 14:07, Linda Fox wrote:
Is there no discretion in the matter? I mean, supposing the couple were
only friends and no more by the time the child was born, and while
admitting joint responsibility for the financial upkeep of the child,
and declaring a "genetic" interest, the father, by mutual consent, was
not going to live with the mother - who might by that time be on the
brink of a new relationship - and was free to go an lead his own life
and she hers - does the law _really_ say that the child _has_ to bear
the father's surname?
I haven't looked at a birth certificate for years, but I thought it used
to say what first names the child had, and what the full names of the
parents were, but did not assign a surname to the child. OAM?

Unless things have changed comparatively recently the BC gives child's forenames, name and surname of father, name, surname and maiden surname of mother. With certain exceptions like Papa being unknown, Mama not being married and Papa not present at registration.

My daughter was about 10 (and had no contact with her father) when she decided that she would like to take her step-father's surname. We just told the school that henceforth she was a Benson and that's the name she's used ever since. A few years ago she had to get a new Driving Licence and needed a letter from me to say she was the person whose Birth Certificate, with different surname, she was presenting. She needed a passport for a school trip when she was about 15 - I presume she got it in the name of Benson, I don't remember.

--
Jenny M Benson
.

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