Do I need to put him on a birth certificate?

[Valhal]

Hey :)

I have an 11 year old, when I got pregnant with them my partner at the time didn't want them, he held my hand and said he would come to the clinic with me and we would get the abortion together. I refused and decided to keep the baby. He left me, wasn't nice to me at all and called me all sorts of names and wanted nothing to do with the baby. After about a year and much bugging from his parents he eventually came to see my kid (as you can imagine he is not on the birth certificate) he didn't really bond with them and they didn't see him for another 6 months. We had regular contact after that and stupidly enough I started seeing him again. We started a relationship and then eventually got married. It was more out of convivence than anything.
Several years down the line I realised it wasn't working out, I wasn't in love with him anymore. My kid doesn't have a good relationship with him and we are now getting a divorce.
He is now insisting that he wants to be on the birth certificate and he wants them to have his surname, my child doesn't want his surname nor do they really want him on the birth certificate.
Question really is do I have to put him on? I know we were married but we are now getting a divorce, he hasn't been on this whole time.

Thank you :)

You can’t ‘put him on’ the birth certificate.

There is a formal process he needs to complete to be added to the birth certificate. If he wants to go on it, it is up to him, not you.

If he actually makes the effort to do that, I wouldn’t suggest standing in his way. He can go to court and be added without your consent. It just means more hassle for both of you. So if he fills out the forms, you should sign them.

However, a name change is not so easy and not something I would advise you to agree to, especially if your child doesn’t want to change his name. Again, if he wants that, he would need your agreement (don’t give it unless you actually want to) and he can go to court. Worst case scenario is that your child has a double barrelled name that he can change back in 5 years time (when he is 16) without his father’s permission.

Just say no and see if he goes to the bother of following the process to get added to it. Re: name change; I doubt any court would make you change the name your child has been known as for the last 11 years.

Just say no.