So this question relates to when a parent changes a child's name by deed poll, but strangely to a surname that is not the same as their own.
Legality is not in question, as the parent has sole PR for this child, so the question is more from a moral standing.
So this mother had gone through a breakup, where there were 3 children, all with her ex's surname, but he only had shared PR for 2 of them.
So after a few months, she used the not having PR arguement against him and stopped contact with the 3rd child only.
Mum then went through a period of several short term relationships, but didn't really see them as rebounds, rather thinking of each new guy as "the one", who was better than all the previous.
Eventually there was this one guy who she thought she would marry, but it was obvious to others that the relationship would not last.
What the mother then did was to change the 3rd child's surname by deed poll to that of the boyfriend and treat him as the replacement dad just for that child.
Eventually the relationship fizzed out and he wanted no further contact with the child who had his name.
In effect this child is left with a random surname, which is not shared by any family member... unfortunately this should have been all too obvious.
Presumably it's obvious that she should have either left the child's name as it was (to keep the bond between the 3 siblings), or changed it to her own surname.
So the question is twofold; has anyone any experience of what it's like as a child to have your name changed flippantly and how did it affect you?
Secondly, what's the best thing for the mum to do now? If she changes the name again, to her own name this time, is it a whole second set of confusion for the child or does it undo the mess created first time?