Should I give the baby his last name?

Question

My BF and I have been together for almost a year, is it a bad idea to give the baby his last name??

Answer 1

if it is his child then its a good idea. because well its his. and the child can always use your maiden name later on in life, if you are still unsure pull out the good old hyphen unless the names are too long. congrats. and best of luck (it is easier to name your child with this now then to change it later on)

Answer 2

The two of you should decide together. If you do give the baby your last name, and you marry someone else latter, PLEASE keep the same last name as the baby. Or if you marry the father, change the baby's name-- find out now how much it will cost to do that and set aside the money. I know families where the oldest child has a different name from anyone else and it is awkward forever.

Answer 3

Yes, it's a bad idea.

You might love your BF right now, but unless you're married it will cause all sorts of problems for the child later on in life.

Not only that, you have other children. What are their last names? It's better to let the children all have the same last name, but I can imagine a ton of scenarios that make this difficult.

First of all, it depends on whether all the children have the same father or not.

My brother and sister have different fathers than I do, and I can tell you that when it comes up in conversation with my friends, they can be really cruel without even meaning to be.

When I was younger my mom decided to 'change' my last name to her current husband who wasn't my father. The problem was that he did not adopt me and there was no legal work done. As you might imagine, this caused all sorts of problems at school for me with the administrators.

Now, other people are suggesting marriage. You've been with your BF for almost a year and I would assume that means that the child is his. Is there a reason why you don't want to get married? What about the other children or child that you have.

I would say that it's best if you give the child your name. You can have the name changed later to his name if you decide to get married.

I know this is not what you're thinking but you have to think about what might happen if you and your BF decide to break up. If the child stays with you then what do you do about the name? Will the father want custody? It's all rather confusing and even more so for the child.

Ah...but you're now thinking that your BF and you plan to be together forever and that won't happen. So, if that's the case, why aren't you married now?

Marriage is not just a religious process and if you've been living together for over 6 months you're considered common-law anyway. With a certificate and legal bindings, it's a lot more difficult for someone to just 'give up' on a relationship when you've had one bad arguement. It really makes them think.

If you're both not READY for marriage yet, then why the heck are you having a child together? Just some food for thought.

Hope it works out for you.

Answer 4

You can pretty much guarantee that the baby will stay with you, no matter what happens with you and the father.
It is always so much nicer if the child always has the same last name as the mother, when registering for school, taxes...etc.
The father could always propose and then all 3 would have the same last name!!!!!
I would say to give the baby your name and if you marry the father at a later date the last name can always be changed.

Answer 5

I would give the baby your last name to prevent having to do a lot of name changing in the future if y'all split up, or if you ever decide to marry a different guy that is willing to adopt the baby. Also, if the boyfriend ends up being a dead beat dad, you wouldn't want to have your precious child carrying around the name of someone who doesn't even care about him/her.

Answer 6

If he is the father, then the baby should get his last name. But in the end, it is your decision. If you two are planning to be a family I would definitely give the baby his name.

Answer 7

If I were you, I would give the baby YOUR last name until the two of you are married.

Answer 8

I would give the baby both last names. Babies generally take the father's last name. Yes, if you have kids by someone else later, they might have different last names, but that could happen in any situation if a couple divorced then remarried and had more kids. So what I would do is FIRST NAME-MIDDLE NAME-YOURLASTNAME-HISLASTNAME.

Answer 9

That is entirely up to you but it could be a bad idea and if i was you i would give the baby your last name and not his

Answer 10

i am in the exact same situation (2 gether for a year having a baby boy!)
i am giving the baby MY last name. it will make paperwork and recognition easier. lets face it even if ur married the mom does most of the doc's apptments, signing up for school, daycare, pta meetings, govt paperwork, etc. it will be much easier if we have the same last name. easier to recognize him as my son.
("well taylor g. that must be jean g.'s lil boy" u know?)

if the Lord decides we should be together 4ever and we get married i will do my sons name change the same time as i do mine. no big deal. my bf will sign the birth certificate so he will always have his parental rights regardless of his last name.

Answer 11

It depends, if your likely to stick with him and eventually get married sure. if you don't think it will last then it would be easier to have your last name, makes things easier when they start school (learned from my mil) you could also hypenate the last name. what my mil did with my hubby (she didn't know then that she didn't have to give him his dad's last name). so we have his hypenanted last name and our kids just have his mothers maiden name (we don't like his father and we tried to change his name in CA but it took longer then we had avaliable.)

Buts its all a personal choice it seems at least for the time being he is going to be there so why not give the name to him.