Can baby born out of wed lock be given the fathers last name?

[blossom02]

Can baby born out of wed lock be given the fathers last name? I’m asking this because my son and his fiancee are planning a wedding in August of next year and now we have found out that they are expecting in May.

Will the priest still marry them? They have start all of their focus and other prewedding things.

 

[mammallama]

I’m no lawyer,but did work as a welfare caseworker for 20 some years…Many of my clients gave their child the daddy’s last name.and often too the daddy would be at the hospital at the time of birth and sign the birth certificate…so I know it is done…Is it legal in all states…can’t say…I imagine Social Security Adm might be able to answer your question since babies now get a SSN shortly after being born.

 

[blossom02]

Thanks mama. I just found this out and it is exciting to have a grandchild on the way but I still wish this would have been different.

Thank God they are having the baby. It will certainly be a different life for them now.

 

[Trishie]

Have you suggested that they speak to the priest? They might find it helpful to have his advice, and if not currently practising, to go to the Sacraments beginning with of course Confession as the Sacraments do support each other, and Matrimony is a Sacrament.

Congratulations on your future grandchild!

 

[Trishie]

Will the priest still marry them? They have start all of their focus and other prewedding things.

Have you suggested that they speak to the priest? They might find it helpful to have his advice, and if not currently practising, to go to the Sacraments beginning with of course Confession as the Sacraments do support each other, and Matrimony is a Sacrament.

Congratulations on your future grandchild!

 

[blossom02]

Thanks Trishie, They will be seeing the preist. They are going through the precanna with him. They plan on talking with him about it. I was just hoping someone else has been in this situation and could shed a bit of light on what could happen. They started precanna before the preganancy.

 

[SMHW]

Can baby born out of wed lock be given the fathers last name? I’m asking this because my son and his fiancee are planning a wedding in August of next year and now we have found out that they are expecting in May.

Will the priest still marry them? They have start all of their focus and other prewedding things.

I don’t know the rules in your state, but here in California the baby’s name is whatever is recorded on the birth certificate. The parents are the ones who fill out the birth certificate and they can most likely write in any surname they chose, even if it is different from either parent’s legal name.

As far as talking to the priest, I’ve known of a few couples who married in the Catholic church while expecting a baby. But they were all planning for the marriage before the baby was conceived and the baby was born some time after the wedding. I have no idea what the priest will say in this case since the baby is due before the wedding. Sometimes there are rules in a diocese that say such weddings should be delayed for fear that the baby keeps the couple from making a free choice to marry. But since they were already planning for this wedding it’s possible he may be able to help them. Would they be open to marrying sooner if it is allowed?

 

[Just_Lurking]

Your son will have an opportunity to sign an Acknowledgment of Paternity at the hospital, which will establish him as the child’s father.

 

[Phemie]

Can baby born out of wed lock be given the fathers last name? I’m asking this because my son and his fiancee are planning a wedding in August of next year and now we have found out that they are expecting in May.

In Canada the law varies by province and I’m sure the same can be said for the various States.

In this province the child can be given either the dad’s or the mom’s surname or a combination of both, i.e. Jones-Brown or Brown-Jones, but those are the only surnames he can be given.

A form ‘for assigning a surname’ has to be signed before witnesses (either a judge, a commissioner of oaths or clergy) & sent to Vital Statistics if the parents have different surname (even if they are married and mom kept her maiden name). This often comes up in my office since most of the children baptized in one parish are born to unwed parents and the Church is responsible for registering the birth with Vital Statistics.

 

[puzzleannie]

Can baby born out of wed lock be given the fathers last name? I’m asking this because my son and his fiancee are planning a wedding in August of next year and now we have found out that they are expecting in May.

Will the priest still marry them? They have start all of their focus and other prewedding things.

the priest has nothing to do with it, this is a matter for the state. most states have laws that state if the mother plans to get public assistance for herself and her child she must list the father’s name on the birth certificate, and the father must be dunned for support first. the baptismal certificate will print the name as it appears on the birth cert. so it is up to the parents to make sure the birth is registered correctly with the state.

they must visit the priest immediately since he will want to make sure their wedding preparations and counselling take into account this new factor.

 

[magic_stick]

Yes, you can do that.

Also, if the couple was married and the mother kept her maiden last name, they can give the baby the mothers last name too. It can go any which way.

 

[chevalier]

Why should an illegitimate child not have the father’s surname, assuming the father recognises the child or parentage is legally proven? It’s not like the absence of marriage makes the child suddenly less his father’s than it would otherwise be. I’m no expert in common law jurisdictions (I’m a civil lawyer), but I can’t imagine any modern jurisdiction which would limit the inheritance of the father’s name to legitimate children.

 

[jmcrae]

Here in Alberta, you can give your child any last name you want. I know a family where they gave each child his own last name.

Their father is Polish, and their mother is English - the mother was worried that the kids wouldn’t be able to spell or pronounce their father’s name, and she didn’t want to look like an out-of-wedlock mother by giving them her name, so she just made up last names for each of them.

I thought it was very strange (and when they were at school, everyone assumed at first that they were foster children or something), but it seems to have worked out for them.

 

[Phemie]

Here in Alberta, you can give your child any last name you want. I know a family where they gave each child his own last name.

Their father is Polish, and their mother is English - the mother was worried that the kids wouldn’t be able to spell or pronounce their father’s name, and she didn’t want to look like an out-of-wedlock mother by giving them her name, so she just made up last names for each of them.

I thought it was very strange (and when they were at school, everyone assumed at first that they were foster children or something), but it seems to have worked out for them.

Can you say “genealogist’s nightmare”? Not enough that priests and immigration people did it constantly now parents are doing it to their own kids.

 

[jmcrae]

Can you say “genealogist’s nightmare”? Not enough that priests and immigration people did it constantly now parents are doing it to their own kids.

Yep! What’s going to happen is that each of these kids is going to be the founding patriarch of his own tribe or clan, so to speak. They will be “generation zero” as far as their descendants are concerned.

 

[Rob_s_Wife]

most states have laws that state if the mother plans to get public assistance for herself and her child she must list the father’s name on the birth certificate, and the father must be dunned for support first. the baptismal certificate will print the name as it appears on the birth cert. so it is up to the parents to make sure the birth is registered correctly with the state.

**ahem… not quite. laws stating that a father may be dunned is not the same as a mother having to declare who the father is to get benefits. my bf got pregnant in our senior year of highschool. the guy unfortunately was a complete and total loser and a jerk. she refused to list him on the birth cert AT ALL - she listed “unknown” on the birth cert. Normally I’m very pro-paternity rights, but I totally agree with her that she did the right thing in that case for several valid reasons. **

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**I can’t figure how the state could make any mother declare who the father of her baby is. What do they do if the mother doesn’t know? **

Can you say “genealogist’s nightmare”? Not enough that priests and immigration people did it constantly now parents are doing it to their own kids.

Yep! What’s going to happen is that each of these kids is going to be the founding patriarch of his own tribe or clan, so to speak. They will be “generation zero” as far as their descendants are concerned.

O/T RANT WARNING!
**May I just say I couldn’t care less what some genealogist thinks now or in future decendents? **

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**In fact, I HOPE it’s a nightmare for them. **

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**My sister is avid (like a rabid pitbull on crack) about this and because of it, EVERYONE in the family refuses to give her any info at all. No pictures no names no nothing. All she ever does is spread vicious tales about what she’s supposedly dug up. Maybe it’s true. Much of it I know is either not true or debatable. **

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When our mother died, we (father, self, other sister and brother) only did a simple obit. Birth date, death date, survived by husband blank, 3 dd, 1 ds, and blank number of grandchildren. My sister threw a huge fit. She wanted what came to a small biography of our mother’s entire life “for the sake of future geneologists” liek herself.

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Well you know what? Our mother’s life was no one else’s business, thank you very much.

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**If she’d have wanted you or anyone else to know it, she’d have told them herself or made the effort to write her own biography. She was one of the one’s who had the greatest dislike for my sister’s geneology attitude. **

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It isn’t a cozy, "Oh I found the last love letter from great grandpa to great grandma during WWII " kind of hobby for my sister. No. More of a "hey everyone did you know granny may have been a st and great uncle ben was probably gay!?" kind of thing. Yeah. That didn’t go over well with ma. Go figure.**

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**Because of my less than dear sister, you won’t find anyone in my family even remotely interested in geneology. Heck. We’re all a bit scared if she out lives us what kind of poo she’ll be telling our grandkids about us! **

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Okay end of rant.
**this is a very sore area in my family. **
**Just in case anyone may have missed that. **

 

[chevalier]

**I can’t figure how the state could make any mother declare who the father of her baby is. What do they do if the mother doesn’t know? **

Just speaking in general, the father is obliged to support the child, and, depending on the jurisdiction, may be obliged to support the mother for the final time of pregnancy and some time after birth. If the father is unknown, this duty may fall to the state. Needless to say, the state would rather have the father pay. Another thing is that people have the right to know their parents.

As for what when the mother doesn’t know, there’s an old custom of the authorities filling in fictitious data. Depending on the jurisdiction, it may be the court or some other authority, perhaps some states list the father as unknown instead of inventing a name. Would have to look up the particular state’s law to know what’s done where.

 

[puzzleannie]

Why should an illegitimate child not have the father’s surname, assuming the father recognises the child or parentage is legally proven?

in most states there is no longer any such thing as a legal status called “illegitimate”.

 

[Rob_s_Wife]

Another thing is that people have the right to know their parents.

Um. No. They don’t. And shouldn’t, imho.

As for what when the mother doesn’t know, there’s an old custom of the authorities filling in fictitious data.

Depending on the jurisdiction, it may be the court or some other authority, perhaps some states list the father as unknown instead of inventing a name.
**well yeah, I suppose fraud is always an option. **

I comprehend that the state would rather have the bio father pay up instead of the state.

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My point was that the state, or at least MY state, cannot coerce a mother into either declaring who the father is (some may not even know or feel it’s against their rights to privacy) or force her to file legal action for monetary gain against another before releasing any gov’t assistance she might qualify for.

 

[chevalier]

Even children conceived after sperm donation have the right to know their genetic identity. No point making the mother tell if she doesn’t know, but a decision to withhold the information from the child indefinitely would be cruel and I can’t imagine unselfish reasons for doing that. Besides, it’s not the mother’s to make. I can understand such a decision if revealing a mentally unstable father would lead to his being granted joint custody without much chance to limit his bad influence on the child, but certainly not for privacy reasons. It may be no one’s business, but it surely is the child’s and, in most cases, the father’s.

in most states there is no longer any such thing as a legal status called “illegitimate”.

Few places in the world keep it, yeah. Probably my fault for using the word “illegitimate”. I basically meant a situation in which the child doesn’t automatically get the mother’s husband’s surname.

And I was under the impression that we were also discussing whether the child should get the father’s name if it’s legally possible…

Well, anyway, got to check with the right authorities or google up the statute. Family law has a great potential for being different from one jurisdiction to the other.