DS wants to change his surname

[SE00]

14 year old DS has been asking to for a couple years now. I changed my surname around 6 years ago. DS has my original surname, which was my father's, who I barely knew so he never met him. He says he doesn't feel any connection to the same and doesn't like having a different surname to me, he also gets teased for it at school so I understand his reasons behind wanting to do it. I know you need both parent's permission to do this but doesn't this still count if the father's name is not on his birth certificate?

Sorry for the typos, that was supposed to say "connection to the name" and "does this still count"

www.deedpoll.org.uk/CanIChangeMyChildsName.html

Can I change my child's name?

A child's legal name can easily be changed by Deed Poll providing everyone with parental responsibility (PR) for the child consents to the name change.

Did the subject not come up when you changed your name 6 years ago? Why did you not let him?

FWIW I would definitely allow him to change it!

I understood that when I changed my name he might want to change his in the future but it wasn't a problem at the time

If you are the only one on the BC, then only you need to do it.

the crucial question is does his father have parental responsibility ( this is not necessarily tied in with being on birth certificate)
if his father does have PR your DS needs both yours and his permission
if his father doesn't have PR then he only needs your permission
if he has lost contact completely with his father I believe evidence that you have genuinely tried to find him, will persuade the court to allow this
other than this
you either go to court to ask for it to be allowed even though his father disagrees His father will be allowed to say why he disagrees
or he waits until he is old enough not to need permission

If your ds's father is not named on his birth certificate you have no need to seek his permission and can change your ds's surname whenever you wish, or your ds can change his surname when he's 16:
www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll/change-a-childs-name

I would suggest you/your ds change his surname before he starts to accumulate exam certificates, diplomas, etc.

His father has never been involved so I believe he has no PR

Involvement is not important. It’s whether or not he is named on the BC, which it would seem he is not.

This is on the Deed Poll website

For births registered in England or Wales
A father automatically acquires parental responsibility if he is married to the mother at the time of the child's birth or if he subsequently marries the mother. An unmarried father acquires parental responsibility if he is named, or becomes named, on the birth certificate from 1st December 2003.

If he's on the birth certificate then he has PR even if he has chosen not to be involved.

If you was unmarried at time of his birth, then you can change by deadpool, if you was married then you cant change it without fathers written consent.

But, what you can do is speak to school etc and ask that they change his surname to be Known as: "new surname" and legal name stay fathers surname", until he turns 16, when he can legally change his name without permission.
So he has the name he wants in school and at drs, but his passport will have his legal name for time being.

Intriguing question - there are so many threads on here about choosing forenames, but if you are changing from your birth surname and aren't married, how do you go about choosing a new surname?