Legal Question in Family Law in California

i have a yr old son who has my last name. his father is not on the birth certificate and was not present for the delivery. i am now expecting a second child with another man and since we are together and plan to be married after the baby is born, we have agreed that our daughter will carry his last name. now my first childs father wants to change our sons last name to his. i do not want this to happen but can i stop it? since i am not involved with him and we were never married can i keep him from changing our sons last name?


Asked on 12/31/09, 10:18 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Which last name he will carry is the least of your issues. It is unlikely that he will persuade a judge to change the child's name, but not impossible. More importantly, though, you and the two fathers need to deal with how these children will be parented and supported. Is your husband to be going to adopt the boy? If not, is he prepared to support him anyway? Raise him as his own? If not, is the ex boyfriend going to? As "the artist formerly known as Prince" tried to show, a name is just a series of symbols that represent the lable given to identfy a person. These kids need fathers. You need to focus on that, not lables.

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Answered on 1/05/10, 9:32 pm


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