The Kansas Court of Appeals has turned an old tradition on its ear, ruling in effect that a child without its father's name is not stigmatized.
The ruling comes from an interesting case centering on a 2-year-old boy at the center of a paternity rights case. According to the court records, the father of the boy discontinued his relationship with the child's mother when he learned she was pregnant, along with all meaningful support. Consequently, when the child was born the mother refused to list him on the birth certificate and instead raised the child with her parents under their common family name.
Two years later, however, the father reappeared and sought to assert his paternal rights. He also issued a request that the trial court change the child's name to his, which the court promptly did. The mother, however, appealed, noting that the maternal name was the only one the child had ever known, and that important records - including the child's Social Security number - was in the maternal name.
The Kansas Court of Appeals agreed with the mother and reversed the name-change decision, holding that the trial court had relied too much on the precept that a child should bear its father's name. Instead, the appeals court held, the lower court should have applied the more modern principle of considering what was in the best interest of the child.
The appeals court clarified the prior case law and adopted authorities cited by the Mother which noted that traditional basis for a child bearing its fathers name - presumably based on shielding a child from the stigma of illegitimacy - had become inappropriate in today's society.
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