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Can I Be Forced To Change My Son's Name

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  • 05-10-2008, 05:44 AM
    cloudic
    Can I Be Forced To Change My Son's Name
    My question involves name change laws in the State of:

    I had my son in Feb of this year in the state of Texas. His biological father came to the hospital to see him after he was born and has seen him a few times since. Recently he has been seeing our son every other Sunday for a few hours. However, he walked away from me in September when I was five months pregnant and denied being the father. He wanted me to get a paternity test while I was pregnant, but I told him that he would have to wait. During the last few months of my pregnancy we had limited contact and when the baby was born he did not put his name on the birth certificate, so he did not acknowledge the baby was his. In March he requested a paternity test and the results showed that the baby was his. In the mean time, I had given the baby my legal last name which is also my divorced last name and my other son's last name. Our son's last name is mine and it appears this way on his birth certificate and social security card. He has sent in Acknowlegement of Paternity to the office of attorney general here in Texas. This person walked away from me when I was pregnant, is not paying child support (which I have requested through the office of the attorney general), and has a pattern of getting upset...walking away for weeks without any contact. He is upset because I don't want to change our son's last name to his and I believe he will seek legal counsel. I'm afraid that I'll be forced to change it. I want to keep it the way it is because the child is living with me and that is our family's last name, he abandoned us, he denied the child, and what if he gets so upset one day and quicks seeing our son alltogether--I don't want our son to have his last name. Can I be forced to change our son's last name to his last name?
  • 05-10-2008, 11:11 AM
    CourtClerk
    Re: Can I Be Forced To Change Son's Name?
    Yes you can be forced by the court to change the child's last name.
  • 08-22-2008, 08:25 PM
    cloudic
    Re: Can I Be Forced To Change Son's Name?
    Update: I finally went to court and this and some other matters regarding the baby’s father, myself, and our child have been settled. The judge ordered that my son’s name not be changed and it should remain as my last name, the child support was increased (since he did not disclose all of his income in the original hearing) this turns out to be about $150 extra a month. My son’s last name was mine and the original order stated to change it to the father’s; however, we had not done it yet. I was willing to hyphenate it, but he didn’t want to do it. The father has been inconsistent in our child’s life and hasn’t seen him for a few months until this past weekend (by his choice). He told me at our original hearing that our child could keep my last name if I would take a reduction in child support at $100.00 a month. How ridiculous is that! I only found out about the extra money because I was subponeaned to appear at a hearing with his ex-wife and at that time his ex-wife’s lawyer questioned him why he was untruthful in our hearing about his income (she was trying to show his bad character). He admitted to all of this in our hearing and I was surprised he didn’t argue. Justice does really work! Now I just want us to be amicable for our child’s sake and have him be active in his life.
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