How To Get A Court Ordered Name Change
How to apply for a court order to change your kid's name
You tin apply for a court gild to get permission to change your kid'south proper noun if y'all can't go consent to the change of name from another parent or guardian with parental responsibleness for your child.
You should first consider all the alternatives to getting a court order though. Applying for a court order is difficult and stressful, and should be only used as a last resort — and the court volition wait you to try to reach an agreement with the other parent / guardian beforehand. (If you don't have their contact details, you should have reasonable steps to go far bear on with them.)
Before applying for any kind of court order yous should attempt to assess —
- how likely it is that the court volition agree with y'all and grant the order
- what kind of effect the procedure (and result) will have on you and your child
- how much the application volition cost in terms of coin, fourth dimension, and stress to you and your family
A solicitor tin help you get through these things, and assistance you decide if applying for a court idea is a good idea. A solicitor, of form, is an extra toll, and you aren't obliged to brand use of ane — information technology'due south possible to brand the application on your own.
What sort of court club to apply for
It's essential that you brand the right kind of application, depending on your child's situation.
Almost people will need to apply for a Specific Issue Society for permission to change their child'southward proper noun, but there are some cases where you'll demand to apply for another kind of gild (run into the interactive guide beneath).
In the stop, though, any type of court club that deals with the effect of permitting the change of name is adequate as proof of the courtroom'due south leave.
Information technology's likewise possible to apply for a Specific Event Order to remove the other parent's parental responsibleness (instead of just dealing with the name alter). This is a much more extreme footstep to take, because it'll permanently take away whatever duties that the parent has to their child — and the courts tend to be strongly in favour of parents keeping parental responsibility. Information technology might be appropriate though, if, for example, the other parent has abused your child, or they've gone to prison house for a tearing or sexual crime.
Making an application
Interactive guide (any part of U.K.)
England & Wales
If your child lives in England & Wales, the blazon of awarding you need to make depends on —
- whether there are whatsoever courtroom orders currently "in strength" for your child
- whether or non you want to change their surname (or simply the get-go name)
You'll need to make a free-standing application under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 , if the kid's been placed for adoption (or an adoption agency has been authorised to place them), and an Adoption Social club hasn't been fabricated notwithstanding.
You'll need to make a free-standing application under subsection 33(7) of the Children Act 1989, if the child is subject to a Care Order or interim Intendance Order.
You'll demand to brand a free-standing application nether subsection 13(1) / 14C(3) of the Children Human action if —
- yous want to change your kid's surname;and
- your child hasn't been placed for adoption (and isn't going to exist);and
- your child is not subject to whatsoever Care Society, interim Care Gild, or Placement Guild;and
-
your child is subject to —
- a Child Arrangements Order which includes arrangements relating to who your child is to alive with, or when your child is to alive with whatever person
- a Residence Gild
- a Special Guardianship Lodge
In all other cases, yous'll need to apply for a Specific Issue Order (and not a free-continuing application).
Scotland
If your child lives in Scotland, yous won't normally need to apply for a courtroom order to change their name. You lot must consult with anybody with parental responsibilities and rights, and take their views into account, notwithstanding, you can still modify your child'southward name even if someone with parental responsibilities and rights doesn't hold with it.
If you lot don't want to consult the other parent, you'll need to apply for a Specific Effect Order.
To apply for a Specific Outcome Guild, you'll need to set an initial writ in the format of form G1 and send information technology to the sheriff court nearest to where your child normally lives. It's important that the writ is gear up out correctly, and it'due south a good idea to get a solicitor to assistance you.
Although you aren't required to have a solicitor represent you in courtroom, the procedures in the Scottish courts are by and large more circuitous than in the rest of the U.K., so it'due south recommended.
Yous volition usually accept to pay a fee of £96 to utilize for a court order about children. You may be able to go a discount if y'all're on specific benefits or have a low income. 
Detect out if y'all're entitled to an exemption from paying court fees
Your application will exist dealt with using the ordinary cause procedure. You tin can have a look at chapter 33 of the Ordinary Cause Rules, which is the relevant chapter for family cases.
How probable it is that the court will grant the order (England & Wales)
Run into likewise: How the courts make a decision
Before a court allows anyone to change the name of a child, they'll employ the welfare test (as laid down in Dawson v Wearmouth) to decide if it would be in the kid's all-time interests.
The courts' paramount consideration is the welfare of the kid, and then if — weighing everything together — they believe a alter of proper name would be in your child's all-time interests, they should let information technology.
Changes of surname
The court tends to resist consenting to changes of surname, because —
- the initial registration of the child's name is thought to exist a profound matter, and that — other things being equal — it'south in the long-term interests of a kid for them to exist known by their birth name
- the child's surname is seen as an important link to their father (or mother, as the case may exist), and an of import office of the child's identity — sometimes fifty-fifty more so when that parent is absent
- it'southward thought that at that place isn't anything really wrong or bad for children to bear a unlike surname from other members of their family — in itself — and and so wanting to a kid's surname to fit in with the rest of a family unit isn't given a lot of weight
In that location must be clear reasons why information technology's in the best interests of a child, to justify a change of surname. The best interests of the child are the courts' paramount consideration, and short-term issues such as convenience and avoiding confusion aren't given much weight.
If your kid bears the surname of an absent-minded parent, then your application is more than likely to succeed the longer they've been absent-minded for, and the smaller their contribution to your child's upbringing — and certainly if their contribution has really been negative or harmful.
The court will take a child's views into business relationship, and if the child themself wants to modify surname the court is more likely to concord. However, your child's wishes actually count for surprisingly little, peculiarly with younger children. Just the older and more mature the child is, the more than weight will be given to their views.
If your kid currently has ane parent'southward proper name, you'll find it much easier to get permission to just add the other parent's surname (making a double-barrelled proper noun) — and not supplant the other parent's surname (with something else) — because and then you wouldn't pause the link of identity to that parent.
Changes of first proper noun
Any proposed change of showtime name is as well subject to the welfare examination (as laid down in Dawson five Wearmouth) — as with a change of surname — and the court will just let it if they call back information technology'd be in the kid'south all-time interests.
Only in general, the court is more likely to consent to changes of forenames, because they don't have the same kind of link to the kid'due south parents that their surname has.
As with disputes about surnames, the court will brand their conclusion based on what they think is in the best interests of the child, and if the child is sufficiently old and mature, they'll give a lot of weight to the kid's own opinions.
The courtroom volition tend to resist to changes of forenames because — as was held in Dawson v Wearmouth — "… other things beingness equal, it is in the long-term interests of the child that the proper name by which he is known should also be the name which appears on his nascency certificate."
Thus — especially for immature children — in that location must be clear reasons why it's in the all-time interests of the child, to justify a change of forenames.
Litigation over kickoff names are much less common than over surnames, though, because —
- the forenames usually aren't shared with ane of the parents, so parents are more probable to agree to a proper name being changed or taken abroad
- forenames are thought to be less physical in character than surnames, and — in practice — a child can be called past dissimilar forenames from what's written on their birth document (See: Re H (a Child) (Child'south First Name) [2002] EWCA Civ 190)
- no courtroom gild is needed to modify a kid's get-go name "within the customs of the primary home", due east.g. with "national wellness services, local educational services or customs activities" (See: Re H)
Source: https://deedpolloffice.com/change-name/children/applying-for-a-court-order
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