Who last name does the baby get if not married?

If you’re seriously with the dad and/or respect him enough, dads…. If you’re not then moms 🤷🏼‍♀️

We double barrelled our daughters. Then when we did get married I changed mine to be the same as hers.

We double barreled, then when we get married I'll change mine

We are married but I haven't changed my name yet. She got his name, but our cats still have my name at the vet 😅 coming up on our one year anniversary and still have to file that dang paperwork.

Our baby girl is having my fiancé’s last name as I will be having the same name in a couple years anyway so saves changing both our names in 2026 it will just be me x

@J so not giving the dad’s name means you don’t respect them or you’re not in a serious relationship? That’s a real crappy thing to imply. In many countries it’s not the default to have the dad’s surname and there’s no reason it should be the default

We’re hyphenating so baby gets part of both of our names. If you and your partner don’t yet share a surname and don’t plan to (whatever that surname would be), I see no reason why baby should not have your last name also included. It’s totally up to you! There is no ‘normal’ really - I’ve seen mums give theirs, or dads or both. It’s your preference and what you would want in regards to having your child’s name match yours or not

Thank you everyone for commenting thoughts 😊 it's makes more sense to me since I was told to give baby mine but I can care less who's our son gets since Ik one day I'll have bfs last name , but I keep getting told not to cuase if we do break up he can take the child with him (ik we won't be breaking up since he keeps telling me we are stuck for ever and I tease him about being stuck with me for ever rather he likes it or not since our baby but he would say it before I got pregnant )

@Allison girl 5 months from now we'll be 2 years married. Haven't changed it lol it's his on our marriage license and recent paperwork but not my social or ID. It's hard to do it lol

Either

There's no normal I'd say, it's down to personal preference and what you're both happy with. My 2 girls have my surname and this baby will also have my surname. My fiancé is more than happy with that and when we marry he'll take on my surname. We are in a serious relationship and I respect him, we just agreed on my surname, it sure as hell doesn't mean I don't respect him, that's just a backward way of thinking.

@Alexandra exactly, but there's always one who pipes in with nonsense lol

My baby boy has my fiancé's surname. I thought that was the norm, unless you're separated. If I was a single mum I'd have given him my surname, but the way I see it is mine will be changing in a few years when we marry anyway. So it just made sense to me. Although my doctor questioned why his surname was different to mine which I found strange🫠 idk if she was digging at the fact we've had a child when un-married😅

Generally they take the mothers last name. So when married the women's name normally changes to her husbands and that's when the children get his name due to the mother now having it too. Your choice though. Either name is excepted or both. My nephews have my sisters maiden names. One due to the fella walking the moment she said they pregnant and the other walked six months later but he orginally had the father's last name. So my sister went and had it legally changed to her maiden name x

I have my daughter his name as I was engaged and was planning on taking his name too. Now I’m married we are all the same.

My kids have their dads name because we are engaged and I plan to take his last name. If I wasn't engaged or planning to have his name then it would be whatever we decided together, most likely double barrelled. Have also made it clear that if god forbid anything happened and our relationship broke down then we would change their last name accordingly, unless old enough to decide for themselves

i know one day i’ll get his name so she has his, but if that changes then i’ll file the paperwork to change her name to mine

We went with a hyphenated last name of both our last names

I've always know the child to take the fathers name.. whereas my children have both of ours hyphenated as his family peed me off 😊

People think the ‘norm’ is dads because looking back people had kids after marriage so the kids had ‘dads’ name even though that was both their names I *think* they should have whoever’s name you and your partner are comfortable with or double barrel if there’s a question mark over it :)

@Tamzin you wouldn’t be able to do that without his permission sorry to say

Whichever you want 🤷🏼‍♀️

@Amy i’m already aware of that and he’s agreed that if we end our relationship and that’s what i want then he’d agree to it.

We're not married (yet) and our daughter has his name. My parents were never married and me and my brother have my mums name. Just depends on who finds it important. I think the only possible problem would be if you're travelling to certain places and have a different name than your kid.

I gave both of my daughters their dad's names even though they were not on the birth certificate.

@Megan that's an interesting choice. Just coz I'm nosy, I'm just wondering why you didn't put the dads on the birth certificates if you decided to give your kids their surnames?

If he’s not the baby’s father but plans on adopting her later on in life you should put both last names so it makes it legally easier :) but if he is the father and is in your life then his last name should be given to said child

I gave my son both of our last names since we’re not married.

I never understood why women had to give up there last name and take the man’s . My daughter has both. I plan on having both as well if we get married. Told him he could do the same but he only wants his last name.

That's up to preference. Traditionally babies get the dads name, but traditionally you're married before you have kids so makes sense to have the dads name. We live in the 2020s not the 1920s so not everyone gets married 😋 not all women take their husbands last name when they marry anymore. So either. You could double barrel too. Whatever you want 😊

We do double barrell we are not married