Change childs first name without fathers consent

[James Woking]

I am writing for some advice about family law for my granddaughter.

Rosie is 11 years old and is transgender and has been living as a girl for 4 years (she says she has always been a girl).

She is diagnosed as autistic and struggles greatly with friendships (she sadly has no friends) and social situations. She attends a mainstream school and is extremely intelligent and is top of her year at school. She is in the last year of junior school.

Her parents are separated and she lives with her Mother (my daughter) and will stop over with her father once or (usually) twice a week who has joint parental responsibility.

She desperately wants to change her birth FIRST name to Rosie (by deed poll) and wants to do this before she starts her new school in September. Her current school will call her Rosie but occasionally (when her class has a stand-in teacher) they will accidently call her by her birth boy's name causing her to be very upset and embarrassed. The school is not trans friendly and refuses to let her use the girls toilets (telling her to use what used to be a teachers toilet).

Rosie gets very distressed when her birth name is used anywhere, not just at school, eg at the doctors.

Her mother is supportive of her changing her name by deed poll but her father is not.

Rosie finds it impossible to talk to her Dad about this (although she enjoys going to her Dads) he has the opinion that she is a child and he knows best.

Is there a way that my granddaughter can get her name changed by deed poll without her Dad’s consent?

[Celestine]

If the mother supports her decision, she can apply to the court to change the child's name by deed poll.
The court would arrange an investigation (by CAFCASS) to interview Rosie, her Mum, her Dad and perhaps her teachers to decide if this in her best interests or not. Interestingly 11 is the age that the child's own views start gaining more weight with the courts.

[James Woking]

Thank you for your reply. Will we need to appoint a solicitor to do this for us?

[dslippy]

Do not underestimate the possible complexity here. I think that a delay can only assist.

[Celestine]

Thank you for your reply. Will we need to appoint a solicitor to do this for us?

No, 76% of all family court matters have one or more parties unrepresented these days. Perhaps some initial advice would be wise, but make the application yourselves otherwise the costs could be very significant, especially if he objects. The process could take a long time to resolve, expect 1-2 yrs.