Adding a Father’s Name to a Birth Certificate

Re-register your child’s birth to add the natural father’s details to the birth record.

The form you fill in depends on whether:

• you marry or form a civil partnership with the natural father after your child’s birth was registered- you must re-register the birth by law
• you’re not married or in a civil partnership but you want the natural father’s name on the birth record

Take the completed form to the register office. If you’re not married or in a civil partnership and one of you can’t be there, that person also needs to fill in a ‘Statutory declaration of acknowledgement of parentage’ form and post it to the General Register Office.

Getting a new birth certificate

If you want a new birth certificate, you’ll have to order one separately – you don’t get one automatically when you re-register the birth.

If the wrong father is named on the current birth certificate, you can ask for a correction. That will remove the wrong father’s name. Then you can re-register the birth with the right father’s name.

If there’s been a ‘Declaration of Parentage’

A Declaration of Parentage is when the court decides who the father of a baby is. You don’t need to do anything to change the birth record if there’s been a Declaration of Parentage made by a court. The court will tell the General Register Office and the birth will be re-registered. You’ll need to order a new birth certificate if you want one.