My wife reminded me that when our son was born, we were unmarried (that part I knew), and that he was given her last name on the original hospital paperwork and the bassinet tag (Boy Davis). This was amended, hassle free, the next day, to give him my last name.
Paidhi girl was born some months before Mr. Cameron and I were married. I actually contacted the appropriate department in the state government, and learned as a result that in Missouri one can give one’s children any surname you like–whether it’s the mother’s, the father’s, or something you read on a deli menu one day. If you’re giving a double surname, however, you have to hyphenate it or else the first one will legally be a middle name. The forms I filled out for both kids had a blank for the child’s surname, so there was no assuming that it would be mine or Mr. Cameron’s.
Mr. Cameron had to sign an affidavit saying he was, indeed, Paidhi-girl’s father. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to be included on the birth certificate. Many scowls from the nurse who brought us the form.
Potentially more importantly, Mr. Cameron’s employer was unwilling to carry Paidhi-girl on the insurance plan unless she had Mr. Cameron’s last name, which annoyed me. As a result, the kids are both hyphenated, which the employer found acceptable.
Another reason why everyone should join a union. Idiot employers.
I don’t think this is uncommon - the hospital I last worked at would name in their records all infants born there as (Boy/Girl) (Mother’sLastName). This was for recordkeeping purposes only, and when they were notified after the birth that the child had been named, the record would be updated to reflect whatever name the parent(s) gave the child. This didn’t affect, AFAIK, what went on the birth certificate.
Thanks, FH, I wasn’t aware of that. I imagine it has some security benefits, too. We didn’t get all the paperwork (certificate of live birth and such) until my wife and son were discharges. I don’t recall if we were given a birth certificate then or if I had to go to the state office. I did get one, eventually, but I just forget how.
There is often a disconnect between the law as written and the behavior of some specific individuals in hospitals who, if they happen to be nominally in charge of such things and provincial in outlook, can be annoyingly assertive about laws and regulations that are not in actual existence.
I seem to remember a New Mexico brouhaha that revolved around a married couple where the pair went by separate last names and had a baby to whom they chose to give a name different from either of them. I think they were told their marriage was invalid and then later that their marriage was legitimate but that the woman’s name was not what she said it was, and told first that the baby had to have the (unmarried) woman’s last name and then, once they decided the couple was married and that the woman’s “real” last name was the husband’s last name, that the baby had to have the man’s last name. All of it just one hospital administrator’s sense of how things are Supposed To Be, not a whit of it on the books.
My half brother was born while my mother was still legally married to my own deadbeat dad (dbd) so she gave him his last name. It’s hysterical, he has never met my dbd and only met his own biological dbd a few times so he is a bit mixed up namewise.