Does changing a surname affect a person's destiny?

When can I go back to my maiden name?

Many people mistakenly believe that taking on the procedure of changing their last name after a marriage has broken up is a troublesome and time-consuming undertaking. In addition, many are also stopped by the need to make changes to other important documents along with the passport. It is for this reason that many divorced women are in no hurry to give up their husband’s surname, which usually drags on for many years, or even forever.

The law states that it is not at all necessary to change your personal data after a divorce. Each half can, at its own discretion, decide under whose name to continue their now single life. It is important to remember that neither the court, nor the ex-husband, nor the law can force you to change your surname to your maiden name.

If you yourself have made such a decision, then know that you have two options:

• do this directly during the divorce;
• initiate the process after the divorce procedure, after some time.

Please note that in the first case everything will look much simpler and faster. To do this, you simply need to state your desire in the divorce application. This will be followed by the usual replacement of documents.

But the second way will turn out to be a little more troublesome, because it will fall under the law “On Acts of Civil Status”, which talks about changing the name (here this means not only the name itself, but also the surname and patronymic).

Rights of a child in a civil marriage

The most interesting thing is that children born in a civil marriage can have absolutely the same rights, including alimony, as those born in an official marriage. But under one condition - officially registered paternity. How to do it?

If the father recognizes his child, then this does not present any difficulty.

The easiest way is to submit a joint application of the parents to the registry office immediately after the birth of the child or even before his birth.

In this statement, the common-law husband must note that he recognizes himself as the father of the child and his mother as his common-law wife. Next, fill out the standard fields of the application: passport details of both parents, place of residence, and put their signature. The application can also indicate what surname the parents wish to assign to the child. Or don’t indicate it - then the father’s surname will be assigned. But it can also be the mother’s surname, the main thing is the consent of both spouses.

After all the formalities, the child will be issued a birth certificate, on which the father will already be entered, and the child will be given his last name, unless otherwise indicated in the application.

This is the easiest way to establish the paternity of a child in terms of bureaucratic formalities, with the exception, of course, of official marriage.

There are also cases when the father does not abandon his child, but for various reasons cannot be present at the time of his wife’s discharge from the maternity hospital. In this case, he can, as mentioned above, draw up a statement of recognition of paternity with his mother in advance. If his absence was sudden, for example, an urgent business trip, then there is a way out in this situation: the father can submit an application by proxy through his legal representatives, or fill out an application at the nearest notary office, have it certified and send by mail to his place of stay mother with child.

If the father was not immediately included in the birth certificate, the child is automatically registered under the mother’s surname. In the future, he will be able to count on alimony from his father and have other relevant rights, for example to inheritance, only if paternity is established and alimony is collected in court.

It must be said that in the case of an officially unregistered marriage and paternity, the child loses not only his father, but also his grandparents. Therefore, they will also not be able to leave an inheritance to their grandson, and the child has no right to claim it.

If we talk about registration, the situation here is similar.

A child born in a civil marriage can be registered both in the mother’s living space and in the father’s living space, but only in the case of officially registered paternity, or after it has been established in court. Otherwise, the mother can register the child only with herself.

Is it possible to change your last name while married?

In Art. 28 143-FZ “On Acts of Civil Status” states that in the process of registering a marriage union, both spouses have the legal right to independently determine what surname they will continue to bear: they will take a common one, each of them will remain under their own, or choose a new one, for example, by adding two.

As for divorce, this aspect of family life is covered by Article 36 of the same law, which provides for the opportunity for each spouse to decide individually with which surname he will enter single life. Considering this circumstance, the question arises: is it possible to change the surname to a maiden name without dissolving the marriage?

And here it is worth recalling that Russian legislation does not in any way connect changes in personal data with the fact of being in a family relationship. This means that a citizen can change his name, patronymic or surname without a divorce. Moreover, there is no reason to prohibit the young wife from doing this immediately after the wedding if she suddenly changes her mind.

Children in a civil marriage

A completely predictable continuation of cohabitation between a man and a woman of fertile age can be the birth of a child. In earlier times, he would have been called not the most pleasant words: bastard, illegitimate, bastard. And these are just censorship definitions.

Everyone is equal, but with one condition

Today, society's position has softened. Children born in a traditional family and from parents with unregistered relationships have the same rights, and this is stated in the Family Code of the Russian Federation:

• care from both parents;
• satisfaction of material needs;
• living in decent conditions.

Every child in Russia has the right to receive medical care, study and receive an education.

And even children born in a civil marriage can claim an inheritance on an equal basis with their brothers and sisters born into an official family. However, this requires compliance with one condition: recognition of the child and his paternity by the man.

Registration procedure

There is no strict regulation by law, but experts still advise registering your child within thirty days, so that you can then issue a monthly child support allowance on time (of course, if there are grounds for this). A new father and mother should know how the birth of a child in a civil marriage is registered and what documents will be required from them at the registry office:

• A certificate from the maternity hospital confirming that this particular woman gave birth to a child on a certain day (the gender of the baby must be indicated).
• Each parent must present a passport.
• Directly at a government agency, dad and mom will write a statement together to establish paternity in an approved or free form. This document should reflect information about the parents, a request to register the newborn baby and assign him the surname of one of them, first name and patronymic. A document jointly filled out and signed by both is confirmation on the part of the mother that this man is the father of her child, and her cohabitant thus acknowledges his paternity.
• Another paper is filled out by the man - it says that he recognizes paternity and has nothing against the fact that the child will be assigned his last name and given the appropriate patronymic.

How does a surname change occur?

Having dealt with the legal component of the issue, you can move on to the actions that need to be performed in order to regain your premarital initials. As mentioned above, in order to avoid unnecessary paperwork, it is better to make the decision that you really want to do this right away and express your desire in the divorce application. If you thought about this when you were already divorced, then adhere to the following course of action.

MARRIAGE REGISTRY

So, the authority to change the personal data of Russian citizens is assigned to the territorial civil registry offices. This is where you should apply to change your last name after a divorce. In this case, you can choose a registry office both at the place of residence and at the place of registration.

Documentation

First, study the list of what documents are needed to change your surname to your maiden name:

1. Certificate of divorce.
2. Birth certificate.
3. Birth certificates of your children, if you have children.
4. Receipt of paid duty.
5. Statement.
6. Passport.

Make sure that you have collected the entire package of necessary papers. This will help avoid delays in processing your case.

Find out more about what documents are needed to change your last name.

Statement

Having prepared the documents, you can go to the registry office, where you will have to write an application. It should indicate:

1. Full name at the time of filing the application.
2. New full name.
3. Place and date of birth, as well as birth certificate details.
4. Citizenship.
5. Family status and details of the document that can confirm it (marriage or divorce certificates).
6. Information about children under 18 years of age.
7. Passport data.
8. Official registration address.
9. Reason for changing personal data.
10. List of attached documents.
11. Signature and date.

Service cost

Like any other service provided by government agencies, changing personal data is subject to a fee. Today its cost is 1600 rubles. There are several ways to pay the fee:

• through a bank branch;
• via Internet banking;
• at the self-service terminal;
• at the post office.

The main thing is to save the receipt so that it can be attached to the general package of papers.

Find out more about the cost of the state fee for changing your last name.

Service provision period

Before the registry office employee accepts and sends the application for processing, he is obliged to check the package of documents presented, the correctness of filling out the application, and also register the application in a special journal, where the request is assigned a specific number.

After this there will be a waiting period. It usually takes about a month. After this period, you must go to the registry office to receive a certificate, which will confirm the changes made.

At the same time, a stamp will be placed in your passport, obliging you to replace this identity card with a new one, and along with it other available documents.

In some cases, you need to be prepared for possible delays in processing. Most often this happens due to the fact that some documents are lost during their storage. And if there are good reasons for this, the head of the civil registry office may increase the period for processing papers to two months.

Changing a surname through State Services

Another way to apply to change your last name is to contact the authorized authority through the Public Services Portal. To do this, you need to register on the site or log into your personal account if you are already a user.

Next, from all the offered services, you need to select “”. Please note that this method of obtaining services does not exempt the applicant from going to the registry office. It is just an entry into the electronic queue, which guarantees an individual day and time of visit to the service. In addition, when submitting an application on the portal, you can immediately pay the state fee. After processing the submitted application, the system will indicate the date of your visit.

MFC

Recently, so-called Multifunctional Centers, which provide services in various areas, have become increasingly in demand. Basically this is the design, registration and replacement of all kinds of documents. The convenience of such a service is that all you need to do is simply prepare the necessary package of documents and come to the MFC. Representatives of the civil service will take upon themselves all further actions.

Please note, however, that in such centers you will first be enrolled in an electronic queue to submit documents to the registry office. You will receive the document itself with new data only after a decision has been made by the authorized authority.

Making an appointment to change your last name after a divorce is also within the competence of the MFC staff. In addition, in recent years the number of such universal centers throughout Russia has increased significantly. This suggests that sometimes it is much easier to get to the MFC than to the registry office, which may be located at the other end of your area.

Peculiarities of the situation of illegitimate children

Registration of a child born in a civil marriage with the civil registry office proceeds differently than for a couple connected by official relations.
In order for a child to receive a birth certificate, the presence of both parents in an informal union is required. The authorities carrying out state registration try to ease the paperwork in this matter and often meet people who are in de facto marital relationships, accepting an application when a child was born in a civil marriage or during the woman’s pregnancy.

Child's surname in a civil marriage

Future parents should take into account that the father of a child born in a civil marriage must confirm in writing his consent to the child receiving his last name. Otherwise, the mother, by law, can only give the baby her last name and nothing else.

Baby registration

As mentioned earlier, both parents must come to the authorities that carry out state registration of newborns and write a corresponding application. Information about the child's mother is taken from the birth medical record.

But the new father writes a statement to establish paternity and pays the state fee for this process. And only after these steps, complete data about both parents is entered into the baby’s birth certificate and into the record of his birth.

If the child’s mother decides, for selfish purposes, not to include the child’s father, but to receive benefits as if she were recognized as a single mother (it is known that in our country it is higher than child care benefits), then the participation of the father in the process of his corresponding application is not required.

But then there will be obstacles when the child receives an inheritance. If the mother categorically refuses to indicate the child’s father in the documents, then he will have to prove his paternity by filing a lawsuit with a certificate in hand with the results of a DNA examination.

The following video will tell you about the features of a civil marriage and the birth of a child:

How to change your last name in your passport

After we have figured out how to return your maiden name, it is important to figure out what to do with all the documents that contain the old data that you used when you were married.

The first thing you need to do is change your passport. Usually exactly a month is allotted for this, after which an administrative penalty may follow, because in fact you are using an invalid document.

You should contact the Main Directorate for Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The following documents must be presented along with the application:

1. Passport with previous surname.
2. A document confirming the change of surname.
3. 2 photos.
4. Birth certificates of children, if you need to add a note about them in the new identity card.

Submitting a petition through the State Services electronic portal will make the task easier. Here you can pay the fee, and at a discount: instead of the required 300 rubles, the system will offer to pay only 210. In total, such a procedure as changing your surname to your maiden name in your passport will take no more than 10 days.

Find out more about how to change your last name in your passport.

Child's surname in a civil marriage

Good afternoon everyone. We have been living in a civil marriage for 5 years. The topic of registration at the registry office has never been raised by my husband in all this time; I myself consider it humiliating to offer something and insist on formalizing the relationship. Moreover, the husband already had experience of official marriage. I consider him a decent person, I’m sure he won’t quit if anything happens.

Now we are expecting a child. I'm thinking about the name. Of course, my husband and I will discuss this point together, but first I would like to hear from mothers who are experienced in this matter what is the best thing to do? I always wanted to have the same surname as my child, so it turns out to be my own. But then, the husband will officially have no relation to the child at all? What could be the real consequences of both options? Thank you all in advance for your advice and opinions.

I don’t know what’s stopping you from starting the topic of registering relationships... if you don’t register the relationship, then give the child your last name, because in kindergarten, school, and even when traveling, it will be more convenient for you to have a mother and child of the same last name, unless of course you play the role of mother, and not on the father.

self-esteem interferes. I think that a man should propose on his own initiative, and not because the woman insisted

If you want to legitimize your relationship, I don’t see anything humiliating in telling your husband about it. Especially now that you are expecting the birth of a child. You live as a family, and it’s right when the family has the same last name. And the proposal was made to you when you decided to live together. Legitimizing is already a formality.

• Iskra Smailovna
• 21 June 2021, 16:41
• ↓

Since you are not officially registered, you will be considered the only legal parent at the birth of a child and your last name will be yours. If you wish, you can indicate the father's details on the birth certificate. If by the time the child is born you and your husband have not registered your relationship, then he can officially become the child’s father only through the adoption procedure. For some, it is convenient to formally be considered a single mother (benefits, allowances, and the father’s consent is not required when traveling abroad with the child). I think in this case, the father should think about what role he wants to play in the life of his unborn child.

Yes, it's up to you to decide. If the spouse has not yet thought about it and raised this issue in a conversation, maybe for him it is only a formality and does not bother him at all. Then you can safely give your child your last name. The main thing is that the father remains a father in relation to the child, and not on paper.

• Kate
• 4 July 2021, 05:25
• ↓

I believe that in your situation, you have the right to demand the legalization of relations, because you should first of all think now not about yourself, but about the child, it will be a plus for him that he will be born in marriage and everyone has the same last name. Sorry, this is my opinion.

Dear author! If your common-law husband is in no hurry to legitimize your relationship, especially since you are pregnant, this does not characterize him from the best side. But this is only his moral responsibility. In any case, you have two options. You become a single mother, receiving your benefits from the state, no problems with your father’s consent to travel abroad, since there is a dash in the “father” column, but there is a big minus here - the lack of alimony in case you run away. Believe me, being a single mother is not a shame. The second option is that your partner adopts his own child, with all the ensuing consequences. Think carefully before you decide

USEFUL INFORMATION: Cost of a marriage contract

A child is happy not from the thought that he was born in marriage and everyone has the same last name, but from a normal, healthy atmosphere in the family, and it does not matter whether it is a complete family or the child has only a loving mother. By the way, I have different surnames with my boys born in marriage, because I did not take my husband’s surname, but left mine

Good luck, author, and have an easy pregnancy.