Legal Question in Family Law in New Mexico

Re: name change

The law on name change is found at the New Mexico Statutes Annotated (NMSA) 40-8. There it says that if a child is under age 10 (I could be off a bit, it could be 12 - I am working from memory here) then both parents have to approve the name change. However, this can be interpreted to mean that both parents have to show up to the court hearing. In your case the father - even though you have to give him notice - probably will have a hard time showing up at the court hearing. . . he's in jail.

You can probably move forward with your name change without concern. If you are doing this on your own then follow all the rules and laws and you'll do just fine. If you have an attorney do the work for you then you'll find the whole process a whole lot easier than you might have thought.

Good Luck.