Establishing Paternity: Can an Unmarried Father be Added to a Birth Certificate Without His Knowledge

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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For a father to be named to your birth certificate, your mother would have needed to (a) be married and name her husband, (b) execute an affidavit of parentage that identified the father and was signed by the father before a notary, or (c) obtain a court order. It is thus unlikely that she somehow simply put a "fake name" on a document to have a fictitious person named as your father.

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This not totally accurate; In none of the fifty states is there a law requiring people to be married to be a father and mother of a child. Therefore a man can easily be named the father if he chooses. In today's world, a man has to be present and sign that he is the father to be entered on the birth certificate. However in just a few years ago, there were still states allowing the mother to state who the father was without anyone present. The laws requiring a person to be present to "accept" fathership are fairly recent - within the last two decades.

I haven't requested a birth certificate in a while, but it didn't used to be that difficult. Perhaps with all the identity theft today it is more difficult. I wonder if your mother really put a "fake" name or is she hiding something else? Those "reasons unknown" are suspicious to me. You could always seek out a private detective - those guys are good at getting tough to obtain documents. I am surprised you can't obtain it by proving who you are.

Establishing Paternity: Can an Unmarried Father be Added to a Birth Certificate Without His Knowledge