Dad Failed to Show Evidence to Warrant Changing Last Name of Daughter

Tennessee child custody case summary on child’s name change.

In re McKenzie Z.

The child in this Davidson County, Tennessee, case was born to a single mother in 2008.  In 2014, the mother informed the father that he might be the biological father, and this was subsequently confirmed.  The mother arranged some joint outings to get acquainted, and the father began attending the daughter’s extracurricular activities.  She had some overnight visits and became acquainted with his family.  A dispute arose in 2015, and the mother refused to allow further unsupervised visits.

The father brought a petition to establish parentage, and the case was heard before Judge Sheila Calloway.  A parenting schedule was ordered after contentious testimony.  Among Judge Calloway’s rulings was one that the child’s name would be changed to a hyphenated version of both parents’ names.  The mother appealed various issues, including the name change, to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

After addressing the other issues, most of which were affirmed, the appeals court turned to the issue of the name change.  The appeals court began by noting that the child of an unmarried woman normally receives the mother’s surname unless both parents request otherwise.  In a parenting proceeding, the party requesting a change of name must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the change is in the child’s best interest.  The appeals court discussed the factors that are normally applied in such cases.

In this case, the father requested the change, and testified merely that the name change was his desire.  On appeal, the father argued that the trial court could have taken judicial notice that the change was in the child’s interest.  But the appeals court disagreed, and noted that there must be evidence in the record establishing that the change was warranted.  Here, there was only the father’s statements, and the appeals court held that these were insufficient to meet the burden of proof.

For these reasons, the appeals court affirmed most of the lower court’s order, but vacated the portion of the order granting the name change.

No. M2017-00484-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. Mar. 27, 2018).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Custody Laws in Tennessee.

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.