Name Change - Hutchinson,KS

I don't want to come across overly opinionated, but I do have to comment on this as this happend with my huband when he was a child and to this day he still doesn't like that all of the changes happend. I have directly seen how this type of back and forth thought process has directly affected a person who had no control of the situation. My husband was born and given his fathers last name, when his mom and dad broke up his mom changed it to her last name and than a few years down the road married a man and change his last name yet AGAIN to the step fathers last name. Because of this my son now has a last name with no blood connection to any of our family and it really makes me upset. An adult decision was made to give her the last name that she has, when you fall in love down the road and marry will you change it again? If you want her to share your last name, does that mean you will never take the last name of your husband? All of the switching around is confussing and should be thought about in great depth, don't change it now if your going to want to change it again down the road. Might sound like just a quick, unimportant process, but really this is bigger than that. He is still her father too and you may just be setting her up for confussion later. Please really think about the long term before you make any changes.

I'd go through the courts/social security administration to see what you formally need to do. And in the meantime, call her whatever you like. She's only 13 mos old!

Then if you legally change her name, maybe the best thing to do is change it so she retains her father's last name, just move it to the middle "Samantha Erin Jones" to "Samantha Jones Parker". As much as you don't like him now and regret the decision, the reality is he is her father, and she may appreciate that connection with him, even if he's not part of her life.

You can explain it to him that you want to prevent "confusion" for her explaining why she doesn't have the same last name as you. And that you aren't trying to omit him from her life, just prevent the confusion when she starts school and with friends, esp since he lives so far away.

You will have to get her father to consent to the name change. If he does consent then you should e able to just go to the court and file the papers with the fees. If he does not consent then there's probably not much you can do about it.

I'm in California, but you have to file a petition with the court and you'll need the father's permission. He can contest it.
My sister's husband stole everything they had of value and disappeared. She couldn't even serve him with divorce papers, let alone restore her name for herself or my nephew. She had to place a legal announcement in so many newspapers so many times according to the "rules" giving the her husband or any other "party to the cause" the right to object. He never responded, but she still had to go through it.
You can ask your baby's father permission and maybe he'll be nice about it. Also, if you get her name changed, you will get an amended birth certificate, but the original will still be unchanged.
When I remarried, my daughter's father wouldn't let me change my daughter's name, but she went by my new husband's name at school, etc anyway.

Best wishes.

I was just thinking that if you run into problems with the father to change your daughters last name, maybe you could add yours? Could you hyphenate it, and then she would have your name also? So if it's Smith now, it could become Smith-Marks, or whatever? Just a thought! Good luck, hope he just consents for you!

I alredy answered similar question before, here is the answer copy:

Don't know about your state but it can be done without a consent of another parent.
You can go to courthouse, look for the department that deals with domestic issues and say that you want to file a petition "PRO SE" means you do not have an attorney.
Next, you will have to notify the ex, but if you do not know his whereabouts or it is not safe to contact him you can do that by publication (publish an article in the legal paper and that is available right at the courthouse), after some time period expires you will have to apear before the judge, state your case and if you are awarded with the judgment - you can go ahead with that paper and change the name in SS and other state official places, even get a new birth sertificate with a new name so by the time your baby goes to scholl - his name is nowhere to be seen or found!
If you do it yourself - cost around $250, if you use a lawyer add another $500-$1000.
There is no reason the child has to have a name of some fool that fathered it and not taking responsibility.
Good luck.