The Hyphenated Surname
Brett Hartley Family Law Specialist
Managing Director at Hartley Family Law
After Separation, parents of children are regularly concerned about stopping any changes being made to the surname of their child and/or bring into effect changes to their surname, including in some cases, hyphenating the surname.
There have been numerous Family Court decisions on the issue, and the most recent being the Full Court decision in the case of Reynolds –v- Sherman in November 2016.
In this case, the mother appealed against a decision in the Lower Court where the Judge imposed a hyphenated surname upon the parties’ child who was only three years of age at the time of the Appeal. The parties had not lived together and after the child’s birth, the child had remained in the mother’s primary care and there were Parenting Orders in place leading up to overnight contact between the child and the father. The mother sought to continue to use her surname (which was on the child’s birth certificate), whilst the father had sought to hyphenate the surname, to enable the child to have the identity of both parents. Read More
Psychologist @ Enoggera Brisbane Australia
7 年I feel sorry for the child when they have to learn to write and learn to write 2 names ! Maybe on a computer is easier. But I agree that having 2 names means nothing in respect to parental identification or heritage. It's who & what the child engages most meaningfully with. Besides these days many people as adults change their names by Depol to the name they actually Want or Like. Who is Reginald Kenneth Dwight? Allen Konigsberg? Krishna Pandit Bhanji? Alphonso d’Abruzzo? Caryn Johnson? Lucille LeSueur? Frances Gumm? Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov? https://thoughtcatalog.com/nico-lang/2013/08/55-celebrities-whose-real-names-will-surprise-you/
Traffic Lawyer & Wiseman Lawyers Principal Solicitor. Practising solely in Qld Traffic Law & related offences.
7 年What happens when either or both parents already have hyphenated surnames on their own birth certificates?