I am having second thoughts about changing ds's surname to my own and could do with some advice.
I am divorced from his father and have reverted to my maiden name. His father has had no contact with ds since he was 6 months old. He is now 2 and a half and knows himself and calls himself by my surname (ie maiden name).
To change his name 'formally' I have to get exh's permission or at least show a court that i have tried (I don't know really where he is or how to contact him anymore)
I could do this but know that I cannot ever change his actual birth certificate.
But my thoughts/worries all of a sudden are, might he be angry with me when he is older for somehow 'changing his identity'?? Should I preserve his original birth name? Double barrel it (ie his father's and my maiden name)to keep the connection?
None of his father's family are in contact, nor are his half sisters who are known by the father's surname.
His father disappeared abroad and pays no maintenance. I still live where we lived when married (quite a small town) and the father's case has recently been in the local paper (he had been lying at the school where he taught)
Any thoughts? I don't know why this is keeping me awake at night but it is. I would need to act fast as ds doesn't know his 'birth' surname to say, at all.
ps I have not acted out of 'vengeance' in calling ds by my surname. I feel that since the father abandoned him so young and none of that side of his family have any contact with ds, he should not have to carry the name.
Plus ds is beautiful, pure, and I feel calling him by his awful father's surname somehow soils him. I could not imagine saying that name out loud - calling him at the school gates etc.
Am I in the wrong?
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Relationships
bit of a crisis about my son's name
Unlikelyamazonian · 02/03/2010 15:11
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