Does anyone know if the baby can take the mothers last name if the father signs the birth certificate or does he/she have to take his? Me and my boyfriend have been arguing about this all night. He's trying to come up with different excuses as to why she has to take his name but I don't want her to because 1. We aren't married and that's how I was raised and 2. His family is never going to be around and they keep talking crap about it because he kept it from them for 8 months