How do I change my child’s name?
Dear Mrs Macaulay,
My child was born in the United States, but has lived in Jamaica since a week after the birth. She is four-years-old and has not been back to the US since her birth. I am a Jamaican citizen by birth and she is a citizen by naturalisation.
She is also a US citizen by birth and by descent since her father is American, and she holds a US passport. I want to change her last name to my last name. The father is in agreement. This is allowed in the US and can be done through the probate court, but they told me that the name change has to be done in the jurisdiction where the child is living. Can this be done in Jamaica? Can I amend my child’s birth certificate here, even though it’s a US birth certificate? How else can I go about changing her name here, bearing in mind that she’s Jamaican too?
Thank you for your letter. I am not certain that I understand your problem. I am not sure whether you mean to amend the registration of your daughter’s birth by removing the father’s name therefrom and so effecting the change of her surname to yours. Or do you merely wish to change her name, albeit, her surname from his to yours?
You have also not stated any reason for wishing to do this. Is it that he is not the father or is it that he is a ‘deadbeat dad’. You say he has agreed to this course of action – this is really quite surprising if he is indeed her father.
I hope you have really thought this matter out very, very carefully. Such a change can have consequences in your daughter’s life in the future, which may be detrimental to her, if your action will remove his registration as her father – for instance, if she needs some medical procedure for which blood, bone marrow or organ from him may be needed.
Are you sure that it will be in her best interest for this to be done? Remember, that it may have implications on the provision of financial support, however small the contribution and her right to share in his estate after his demise, without having to go through the legal rigmarole of getting an order of paternity. This will be more difficult because of your action.
Anyway, for whatever reason you wish to do this, let me see if I can clearly advise you in this regard.
If your wish is to amend her birth registration to remove the registration of this man as her father and his particulars, then you would have to apply in the United States. Your application will have to be to the relevant court in the city/town where her birth occurred and was registered.
You see, she was there registered under the laws of that state and not in Jamaica pursuant to our laws. So this type of change, which will in effect, erase all mention of this man as her father, must be obtained by way of an order of the appropriate court applying the appropriate law.
If however, you merely wish to effect a change of name, this can be done by a Deed Poll. This can be done here in Jamaica. The deed is recorded in the Registrar General’s office in Spanish Town. By this means you state in the Deed Poll that your daughter who had formerly been known as ‘so and so’ will henceforth be known as ‘so and so’. This will leave intact all the particulars of her father in her birth registration and certificate and you will merely effect the change of her surname from what it now is to yours.
Your daughter is indeed entitled to Jamaican citizenship through you but you will have to apply for her to be granted a certificate of citizenship for her to be legally recognised as such. The application is made to the Ministry of Justice, if I recall correctly and you must send in a certified copy of your birth certificate and hers to prove that you are her mother and Jamaican and she is indeed your daughter.
You must however, remember that as you will be doing this on her behalf in her minority, when she obtains her majority at the age of 18 she will be entitled to revert to her use of her father’s surname or add it to yours. You are making this decision now for her but in law she can make her own then if she wishes.
Good luck and I hope you make the right decision and act in the best interest of your daughter.
Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law and a women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions and comments via email to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com or fax to 968-2025. We regret we cannot supply personal answers.
