Question Home

Position:Home>Genealogy> If your parents married later in life and your surname was changed?


Question:after their marriage, would this have been done automatic or would they have had to change the name by deedpoll or could one parent have adopted you?

for example could i find out if lets say my father wasnt on my birth registration, but later i was given his surname because he adopted me... how does this work if you are brought up by your biological mother? does the father have to adopt or can they just change the name...

Can i find out if this was an adoption thing or a name change?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: after their marriage, would this have been done automatic or would they have had to change the name by deedpoll or could one parent have adopted you?

for example could i find out if lets say my father wasnt on my birth registration, but later i was given his surname because he adopted me... how does this work if you are brought up by your biological mother? does the father have to adopt or can they just change the name...

Can i find out if this was an adoption thing or a name change?

The name on your birth certificate is your legal name until such time as it is legally changed. In the US, this is done through the courts and I can but assume it is done through a similar legal process in other countries.

Contrary to popular belief, your legal surname at birth IS NOT that of your father (or even your mother if the father is not declared). Your parent(s) can name you (within some restrictions) anything they want. Your possibly unwed mother could be a Smith, your biological father could be a Jones, yet they decide to name you Jane Roberts. They could do that (in fact, while exceptionally rare, it did occur with greater frequency than today back in the 1960s when giving children rather unique names was "cool" in some circles).

But that's your legal name until it is legally changed. The most common time a surname is legally changes is at marriage - but that too is optional - no woman is required to change her name for marriage.

Even if a biological father is identified after birth (the mother came clean, or maybe through a paternity test), such identification does NOT change the legal name.

Same with adoption. Certainly a common part of most adoptions is a legal name change, that is separate from the adoption itself. Again, there is no requirement that a name be changed because of adoption. Not changing a name is pretty common when a couple adopts an older child of relatives who may have died. If I adopted the son of my sister and her husband if they passed away, I doubt I would change his name.

So your legal name is that on your birth certificate unless there was a legal name change. And if such a name change did take place, there would be records. Even if the change was a result of marriage.

how can your biological father adopt you? you are already his!! i don't really understand your question.

there should be legal documentation for all of these things, first of all you need to find your birth certificate, your parents names should be on it, but sometimes only the mothers name, if you have had your name changed by deed poll there will be a document from the lawyer that you have to show when asked for your birth certificate to show that originally you were say jane smith and then became jane jones, the same if you were adopted by your mother's husband, if i were you i would talk to your mother and find out exactly what happened,

as long as my parents are happy with whom they marry and I like the person..and if the surname is a normal name and not a weird or funny last name like woodcock or crapper , then I would want to keep my surname because who wants to be called Mr. Crapper.. i had a friend, her last name was actually craper ,,people teased her so bad in school, i felt bad for her

I'm too confused to answer your question.

To respond to one of the earlier answerers, if the biological father is not married to the biological mother at the time of the birth of the child, then an adoption may well be necessary, if only to clarify matters later.

I would think the legal way to do it would be to adopt, that way the proper documents have been filled out and everythings above board.
I don't know how deedpoll works with things like that.