Q: How can I change my daughters last name or add a father to her birth certificate?
I have a one year old daughter and her father is not in our lives at all. He is not on her birth certificate and she has my last name. I've been with this guy since my daughter was a newborn and she calls him daddy and he treats her like his own. We were wondering how we could go about giving her his last name or putting him on the birth certificate. Do we need consent from her real father even though he's not on the birth certificate or involved at all?
A: To get him named on the birth certificate, he would have to adopt the child. Normally this requires that he and you first be married. In an adoption proceeding, the biological father would have to be notified, although his consent may well be not necessary.
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