• Changing an infant's name is possible with a few important steps.infant with four teeths image by Pavel Losevsky from Fotolia.com
  
  Statistics show that about 5 percent of parents wish they could change the name of their child within days, weeks or months after the child was born and registered. What if the parents really want to change the name of the baby? Is it possible? Different states in the U.S. have different infant name change laws but most of these laws have several things in common.
  
  

Requirements

• The state of New York allows parents to change the names of their children by virtue of the New York State Consolidated Laws: Civil Rights Law Article 6. Section 60 of the Article states that petition for the change of name of an infant must be made by the infant through the guardian, parents or next friend. The next section lists the documents that must be presented along with the petition. These documents include proof that the petitioner was not convicted of any crime or is not incarcerated, child and spousal support particulars, and others.
  
  

Notification and Publication

• The parents are given notice of the time and venue that this petition will be presented. Although both parties are ideally present in the hearing, certain circumstances may allow only one parent to appear. To ensure that all parties concerned are notified, the petitioner is often required to submit a Notice of Motion if parents are not cohabiting or a Notice of Publication if the whereabouts of the noncustodial parent is unknown. All possible ways of communication must be tried to deliver the petition to the other party--father or mother.
  
  Some states allow the name change to be enacted by one parent without consent of the other, depending on the situation. For instance, in Georgia, the following conditions apply: one of the parents is deceased, one of the parents had abandoned the child, or one of the parents didn't contribute financially for the child's welfare.
  
  

Issues

• Changing the name of an infant can be tricky and difficult in most courts across the country. In almost all states, if one parent is against the change, litigation could follow. To be sure, some states require written consent from the other parent to allow the child's name to be changed.
  
  

Approval

• The petition will only be approved if the court believes that the name change will be beneficial for the infant and that there were no reasonable objections to the name change, and for other reasons that the court thinks are justified.
  
  If changing the infant's name would cause confusion and difficulty especially when there are ongoing court cases in multiple jurisdictions, the name change petition will, often, not be approved. Also, frivolous, racial, or celebrity names are also not approved most of the time.