hi moms,
I have alittle bit of a problem and was wondering if anyone can help me or knows were to go to get help . My daughter has my ex's last name and i have been trying to change it but can afford a lawyer. I do have full custody of her (for 3 years) and he doesn't pay child support or has not seen my daughter since she was 1 (she's 4 now !!) I feel it's time to change her name to my last name I just don't know how . Can anyone help ? She's in school now and the teacher calls her by my last name but i want it to be legal. PLEASE HELP . thank you
You may want to consider adoption. With name change, if something happened to you, and your ex was legally next of kin, your daughter could find herself living with someone she does not know. The good news, adoption fees are 100% reimbursed on your taxes up to $10k. Believe me, as I have been through this, it is worth it to have the peace of mind that your daughter belongs to you and your husband and no one can come and mess it up.
Call your local vital statistics office, and ask for a legal name change will cost. Coming from Cleveland, I was able to change my daughters name for only $100 dollars without all the technicalities.
I'm sorry that her dad isn't working out (but your daughter will be a better person with you-trust me!) I do know that if he doesn't pay child support and you don't want him in her life at all, you can have your current partner adopt her and then you can legally change all of that through the court system and her biological father will never have any rights to her whatsoever. Now, what usually stops people from doing that is the child support (he wouldn't ever have to pay it) but if he's not paying it now, you could just keep him out of her life for good. Good luck to you whatever happens!
As far as I know, if you and the father take her birth certificate to a notery and sign that you want her last name changed. That should do it, you then mail it to your local courthouse. Look on the back of her Birth Certificate, it will have instructions about how to do it.
Hopefully you still talk to him and he'll agree to it.
Hi A., I know you posted this a while ago, but if you still need help, I am a law student in the University of Pittsburgh's Family Law Clinic, and I'd be happy to help/give advice etc.
email me at ____@____.com, if you haven't resolved your situation.
Take Care, R.
Hi A.!
It's fairly simple. Just go to or call your local courthouse, (Pgh. is probably Allegheny) and speak to them. They'll point you in the right direction and you'll only have to pay a small fee, nothing close to what you'd pay an attorney. My sister has changed her last name (through divorce) and even though it was done by an attorney, i swear he only "charged" her $50 to do it, so i can't see it being several hundreds of $ to do. I hope this helps!
Good Luck!!!!!
