Name Change for Young Child to Stepdad's Name from My Maiden Name

[TKCJ]

My question involves name change laws in the State of: Michigan.

My son is 5 years old. He has had my maiden name since birth. Seven months ago I remarried. (My son's father and I were never married). His bio father is not on the birth certificate (he left the hospital angry because I refused to give him joint custody at birth; we were separated when my son was born and when leaving the hospital he told me "I've washed my hands of this, find yourself a new dad".) Paternity has not been established, I filed for child support when my son was two but I have never received any money. I filed for a name change and the bio dad refused to consent, now we have a hearing next month. My reasons for the name change are I would like my son to have the same last name as the rest of our family (myself, my husband, and our infant daughter). We live in a small town and I worry that him having a different last name will cause him to get teased and I worry he will feel different from the rest of the family. I also feel my husband has taken on the responsibilities of a father. He has supported my son financially and emotionally and his bio dad has not.

I have allowed my son to go to his paternal grandparents house every other weekend since he was approximately 6 months old. His bio dad has been in and out of their home last I know he lived with them. I thought that would be best for my son to see his grandparents. My only stipulation was that he was not allowed to be alone with his bio dad. He has a history of driving while under the influence of drugs and spending time with people and in places that are not safe for a child. So bio dad has seen my son fairly consistently, but not by his own efforts. His grandpa told me at one point he rarely spent time with him while there, that he (bio dad) maybe "played with him for a minute then went off and 'did his own thing.'" He has never sought paternity testing to establish that he is the father, and the child support specialist that I met with told me she knows bio dad (again, small town) and assumes he lied to the police officer delivering the notice and pretended he wasn't who he was. Therefore, the support order was dismissed.

My question is, what are my chances of being able to get my son's name changed to his stepdads last name? Should I hire an attorney?

I'm sorry for the long post. Thank you for your help.

[Dogmatique]

Nobody can guess. One other legal option you have is changing your new family's names to match that of your son. That way you don't need Dad's consent at all.

Given that he IS actually part of the child's life fairly consistently, he stands a fairly good chance of fighting it IF he's requesting that the child's name is hyphenated to his. If he's not, and is simply refusing, he might find it difficult to convince the court why it's not in the child's best interest - given that the child has never carried HIS name.

[TKCJ]

That's actually something we've considered. Thank you so much for your help.

[Dogmatique]

Phew - I often get "jumped" on for even suggesting that even though it's a perfectly legal option

Kiddo has your maiden name, and Dad has never bothered until now to even think about the name, correct? Again, I think Dad might have an uphill battle to fight the name change unless he is also requesting a name-change himself.

Please let us know how this goes though, if you get a chance?

[TKCJ]

:-) I'll take any suggestions I can get. Correct. The name has never really been an issue for him until now. Dad was not happy that I gave him my maiden name when he was born, but never considered fighting it (that I know of). My husband recently talked to the paternal grandpa who said he understood our reasoning for wanting the name change but said bio dad wants him to 'eventually' have his name. I will definitely let you know what happens.