Father's surname as a deed poll add

[Lizadork]

Often on this site we tend to encourage the unmarried mothers to give their children their own surname, rather than automatically give the father's surname because of so called tradition. I fully support this and I have in fact done this for my eldest child (2nd child due soon likely to follow suit). But has anyone at a later date done a deed poll of the name to either add father's surname as a middle name or replace your surname etc? Maybe months or years later. Why did you do it? And did it feel odd having a non-birth certificate document naming your child? I can't quite reconcile the idea of actually doing it as it doesn't feel as official. How has your experiences been?

Maybe you did a deed poll for another reason, maybe you had baby name regret which seems to also be a frequent theme here. How was that experience and how do you feel name?

I know if my child's father signs the birth certificate now, the surname can be either changed to his or double barrelled - anyone know if a double barrelled surname has to have that line thing? Such as "Smith-Jones" when preferring "Smith Jones"

Don't know the rest but I have a double barrelled surname with a hyphen. (Sarah Marie Johnson-Smith)

It's straight forward go do the deed poll.You can choose to have a hyphen or not it's up to you. Having a hyphen will make it more clearly double barrelled.

To add to this yes, we decided to double barrel later as only had the father's name on the birth cert. I didn't think about it much at the time of registration as I was rather preoccupied with a newborn, but as the time went it started to bother me. I'm really glad that both names are now represented.

And no it doesn't bother me or feel less official that it was done this way. It just becomes the official name they use and you'll quickly forget the rest. Best to do while your child is still relatively young still. Once they are older it's harder as they may feel attached to the old name.

Thanks for the replies.