how can i add a name to my daughter's name?

Answer 1

You don't say where you are. The answer varies by country. If you are in a Common Law (Anglo-American law) country, you can call your daughter (or yourself) whatever you like without any legal procedure to ratify that.

In dealing with officialdom, however -- passports, driving license and the like -- officialdom may require some legal document.

In England that's a deed poll: a cheap and quick way to change one's name: http://www.ukdps.co.uk/
In fact, it's valid for anyone (with the nationality of a Common Law country) who is domiciled in England or Wales. Indeed, anyone with an English or Welsh mailing address could probably do it, and have the deed poll recognized in other countries.

In U.S. states, changes of name are formalized by court order. Here's one source of forms:
http://www.lectlaw.com/usforms/namechange.htm

In either case, changing the name of a minor -- unless it's a family-name change by the whole family -- is likely to require a valid reason. Once the child becomes 18 s/he can formalize whatever name(s) s/he's been using quite easily.

Adding a middle name or initial is rarely an issue, and you may find that you can just do it. On the other hand, in this age of terror and identity theft perhaps government agencies are stricter than they used to be.

So: you can definitely add a name to your daughter's name, but you may have some hassle formalizing it while she's a minor.

Changing a name in a Civil Law country (most of the non-English speaking countries of the world) is far more problematic and in some countries virtually impossible. Indeed, my daughter (who has more than one nationality) couldn't even replace the "e" in her name with an "é" for her passport in a Civil Law country, notwithstanding that her name is normally spelled with the accented e in that country's language. Because it wasn't on her birth certificate from the English-language country where she was born.

Answer 2

You can just start using it and it will be her's or you can go to your county probate department, fill out an application for name change, go in front of the judge and get his okay and ta da...it's all legal.

Answer 3

Go to the probate court in your county

Answer 4

Why would you? This is why the world hates us! Is this is what you sit around all day thinking about? Go find something to do.