The Crib: A Blog for New Parents

I considered changing my Kelyns’ name when she was little, because so many people had such a hard time with it. It was difficult for friends and family to get the hang of the pronunciation, and the spelling. Doctors, babysitters, teachers, etc. all had a real problem with my daughter’s name. Once they got it right, most people said; “Oh, that is a pretty name, and so unique!” But that was only after they stopped calling her Helen, Kevin, Kayla, Kirsten, etc. It isn’t really a hard name either, I don’t think so anyway, it sounds the way it is spelled. Kel-yn. For a long time, Kelyn wasn’t too thrilled with it either though, and she went through a phase when she wanted to be called by her middle name, Marissa, or by Lyn, and some of her friends call her Kel, which she doesn’t mind, but if you call her Kelly, she’ll correct you quite strongly. Now, her name isn’t the most “original”, or the hardest to pronounce of the kids she goes to school with, so she feels rather lucky in that regard. She has friends who dislike their name more than she ever did, so she is pretty happy with it, most of the time.

Is it possible to change a child’s name?

Yes, actually, it is, and doing so is not as uncommon as you might think. There are many people who decide that the name they put on the birth certificate wasn’t such a good idea. Either there are problems with pronunciation, meaning, spelling, or maybe they named the child for a person that they no longer want their child to be named for. Whatever the reason, the process of changing the name is not easy.

I Googled the phrase; “I want to change my child’s first name”, and that one phrase came back with a ton of information. There are quite a few people out there, discussing this issue. However, only one site really had any relevant legal advice for the question of how to go about doing it, http://www.lawny.org/lawny/content/view/33/58/ . The site is based on New York law, but if you were determined enough, you could find out the law in your own state.

If you have decided to change your child’s name, would you let me know how you went about it, and how it turned out? Thanks