If someone's father changes his surname before they are born would they have his original surname or the new one?

Question

Asking out of curiosity :p

Answer 1

Usually a child will have the new surname in situations such as this, but it would depend on naming traditions and what the parents decided. For instance, my half-sister has my mother's maiden name because her dad refused to sign her birth certificate. My mom and him were never married, and she didn't want to give my half-sister his name due to legal reasons. If my mom had given my sister my dad's (her ex-husband) name, there were also legal concerns surrounding that. My dad could have sued her for putting him in a "bad light," which can be viewed as a form of defamation of character, much like "slander" and "libel." The only two viable options were to use her maiden name or to make up a new name. She chose to use her maiden name.

Answer 2

The registrar will have put on the certificate whatever surname they were told to put, if they put one at all. Till quite recently, UK birth certificates didn't even have a space to list the baby's surname. The registrar wrote down the full name of the father and mother, and also the maiden name of the mother, and the personal name(s) given to the baby: this could be left blank if the baby had not yet been named at the time of registration. Officialdom used simply to presume that if there was a father named on the certificate, the baby would have its father's surname.

And if a birth certificate did have a space specifically for the child's surname, it would be up to the person notifying the registrar of the birth to say what that surname would be.

If a man had changed his name, for whatever reason, I can't imagine his deciding to give his child the surname that he himself had jettisoned rather than his new one.

Answer 3

Usually a child born after the parental name is changed has the new name.

Answer 4

Probably what was put on the birth certificate is what the father's surname was at the time the child was born. Can't see why they would put the old surname on it. People completing birth certificates could care less about genealogy. They don't care if they tie the child into the father's ancestors at all. In the direct paternal line the surname might have been changed a few other times. No big deal. Surnames were not started to identify a person as a member of a family and no way does everyone with the same surname share the same ancestors

Answer 5

They will have the name they were registered with, look on your birth certificate, as some children are registered under their mothers surname not their fathers

Answer 6

new lol

Answer 7

which ever one they write on the birth certificate, the new one most likely.

Answer 8

Usually the new one, but whatever they decide to put on the birth certificate.