Changing name on birth certificate

[BatCave]

This is on behalf of a friend who is pregnant, having issues around what the baby's surname will be, unmarried and she is unsure she wants to take her partners name when they eventually marry.

Does anyone know the laws on changing the birth certificate, say if they gave the baby her surname now, if they were to marry and she DID take her partners name, would she be able to change baby's surname on the original certificate? And vice versa, if they gave baby her partners surname?

You have a year to change the name. If you marry you can also legitimise the child by reregistering them, but I'm not sure if you can change the name then.

www.ukdp.co.uk/name-change-birth-certificate-england-and-wales/ - looks like you can re-register the birth after marriage and change the surname at that point

That's great thank you. So if it were changed, you'd get a brand new birth certificate same as the old one with the new name on?

Looks like it. Can't see if there's an age limit for the child when you do this?

If your friend marries her partner after she's registered the birth of her child, the child will have to be re-registered as marriage changes the status of the child in the eyes of the law. At re-registration, the surname of the child can be changed and a replacement birth certificate will be issued. The original birth certificate should be destroyed by the Registrar. There is no time limit on when re-registration can take place.

That's really useful thank you. My friend was under the impression if her baby was to have her partners surname it couldn't then be changed in this way if she decided to not take her partners name, even if they marry.

One other option they are considering is each keeping their surname, but merging for the children (his is already double barrelled) so say Miss Smith and Mr Johnson-Davis and the child's surname would then be Baby Johnson-Smith. Is this easy to achieve?

Yes, when a baby's birth is registered, it can be given any surname the parents want - mother's, father's, a combination of the two or a cometely different surname! A child's forename is quite easy to change within the first year of birth, but not so easy for a surname (except for re-registration).

Hello, my husband and I were married when we had DC1 but i'venever taken his name (rather fond of my own). We double barrelled our names for DC1 and DC2. The down sides are the surname is ENORMOUS, it irritates some people (MW at booking in appointment was finding it hard not to roll her eyes when filling in the form) and some people assume we're not married.

The upsides are that school etc know we're the child's biological mother/father and that I didn't have to conform to an age old rule that says I must take my husband's name as he's the man.

Ironically I'm the one who has wobbles on it, but my husband (who is probably the nicest man in the world) always says it's absolutely not an issue and he's glad we did it.