My question involves name change laws in the State of: Georgia
I have been divorced 6 years but still have used my old married name because I have three children by my ex and they were smaller then, and I didn't want them to feel disconnected from me by my last name changing at the time of the divorce and being different from theirs. I did, however, legally change it back to my maiden name during the divorce. They are all teenagers now, so it really isn't an issue anymore.
I have had a baby and the father is not currently involved, nor is he on the birth certificate. We were never married nor in a real relationship...it was a one-time thing. I had planned to use my maiden name as the baby's last name since that is my legal last name and I have been slowly transitioning everything over to that. Problem is, my insurance info was listed as my old married name when I filled out hospital paperwork. The hospital says they must use the mothers name as listed on the hospital records and when there is no father listed, they must use that last name for the baby. The problem is, that last name is wrong for BOTH of us. They would not submit the birth certificate with my legal last name (my maiden name, as specified on my divorce decree) or recognize that as my son's. So now, the birth certificate reflects both his and my last name as my old married name (so he has the last name of a man he is completely unrelated to!) I sent Georgia Vital Records a copy of my divorce decree showing my legal name chage to my maiden name and a request that they change my last name and my son's to reflect that name. They refused and told me I must have a court order for BOTH of us!
I want to go ahead and change his name and my name to my maiden name on the birth certificate. All the standard court paperwork I can find shows that I need the father's permission. He isn't even named, and his last name isn't the name my baby has now.
I'd rather not run into any snags in handling this. I even turned it all over to a lawyer and here I am one month later and they have done nothing. His secretary said that he was "researching whether or not we even needed to include the father at all on my paperwork". They seem to be taking a very long time and I need to get this straightened out so I can get his Social Security number and other legal stuff done without having to go back and change it all later. I'd rather do it right the first time.
Do you have advice? Thanks.

