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What surname child will be given if mother and father cannot compromise on it? Let's say woman kept her surname after marriage.Child was born and now both want this child to carry their surnames. They do not want double surname and don't agree on that (e.g sounds weird , etc). What happens to a child's surname in this case? How would this be resolved?

I am talking primarily about US.

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There's a lot of variation from country to country, and in the United States, from one state to the next. Even in a single state, the rules can change depending on other factors, like when the dispute arises and whether the parents are married.

Unsurprisingly, the laws here in the United States tend to favor the use of the father's name, but again, these can be very fact-specific. There was a law review article several years back summarizing the interstate variations in child naming laws that might be helpful: Naming Baby: The Constitutional Dimensions of Parental Naming Rights, 80 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 159 (2011).

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    why father's name? is mother in any legal way carries less responsibilities upon a child?
    – YohanRoth
    Commented May 9, 2018 at 18:39
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    Because America and its legal system are largely patriarchal. For most of our history, women's interests have been secondary to those of men, de jure or de facto.
    – bdb484
    Commented May 9, 2018 at 18:56
  • @bdb484 Exactly, unlike the rest of the world's matriarchal dominating history.
    – paulj
    Commented Aug 8 at 20:13
  • @bdb484 For most of the legal history of the U.S., assignment of the father's surname to his legitimate children and a wife taking the surname of her husband, were mandatory de jure rules of law. These days the "best interests of the child" standard would probably be applied.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Aug 8 at 20:55
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    @ohwilleke I started reading the law review article, and it mentions issues like giving children obscene names. Even in states that don't explicitly prohibit it, a judge might rule that it's against the best interests of the child.
    – Barmar
    Commented Aug 8 at 23:13
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BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES REGISTRATION ACT 1995 (NSW) s 22 says you go to the District Court and they resolve the dispute as they see fit.

  1. If there is a dispute between parents about a child's name, either parent may apply to the District Court for a resolution of the dispute.
  2. On an application under subsection (1), the District Court may--
    a. resolve the dispute about the child's name as the Court considers appropriate, and b. order the Registrar to register the child's name in a form specified in the order.
  3. If any court (including any court of another State or the Commonwealth) resolves a dispute about a child's name, the court may order the Registrar to register the child's name in a form specified in the order.
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  • Are there any guidelines for how the court is supposed to resolve this? Or can they just pick a name arbitrarily, and the parents have to live with it?
    – Barmar
    Commented Aug 8 at 22:04
  • Also, this doesn't seem to be specific to the surname, it looks like it also applies if they can't agree on the given name.
    – Barmar
    Commented Aug 8 at 22:04
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Swedish law has it that if the parents do not have the same surname, the child acquires the last name of the most-recently born sibling with those same parents. If there is no such sibling, it is determined by the name that the child is registered with with the tax authorities, within 3 months: that name may be the name that one of the parents took before (this) marriage. But if there is no such notification to the tax man, the child takes the mother's birth name. So it depends on jurisdiction.

Förvärv av efternamn genom födelsen

Barn till föräldrar med gemensamt efternamn förvärvar genom födelsen det namnet.

Har föräldrarna olika efternamn när barnet föds och har de tidigare ett eller flera gemensamma barn som står under deras vårdnad, förvärvar barnet genom födelsen det efternamn som det senast födda syskonet bär.

Har föräldrarna olika efternamn när barnet föds och är andra stycket inte tillämpligt, anses barnet genom födelsen ha förvärvat det av föräldrarnas efternamn som anmäls till Skatteverket inom tre månader efter födelsen. Anmälan kan i stället avse ett namn som någon av föräldrarna senast har burit som ogift. Görs inte någon anmälan i fall som nu har sagts, anses barnet genom födelsen ha förvärvat moderns efternamn.

Fastställs inte faderskapet inom tre månader efter födelsen, anses barnet genom födelsen ha förvärvat moderns efternamn.

Google Translate results:

Acquisition of surname through birth

Children of parents with a common surname acquire that name at birth.

If the parents have different surnames when the child is born and they previously had one or more joint children under their care, the child acquires the surname borne by the last born sibling through birth.

If the parents have different surnames when the child is born and the second paragraph does not apply, the child is considered to have acquired the surname of the parents through birth, which is reported to the Tax Agency within three months after the birth. The registration may instead refer to a name that one of the parents has most recently borne as an unmarried person. If no notification is made in cases as mentioned above, the child is considered to have acquired the mother's surname through birth.

If paternity is not established within three months after birth, the child is considered to have acquired the mother's surname through birth.

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