New Brunswick
Birth Certificates
Birth Registration Guide
Congratulations on the birth of your baby (or babies if you’ve had more than one!) You’re about to make one of the first important decisions in your new baby’s life: choosing a name. Perhaps you’ve had one in mind for months. Or you’re busy thinking up a brand-new name because your baby isn’t the sex you expected!
Whatever name or names you choose, you'll have to register your baby's birth with the provincial Vital Statistics office before you take your newborn home. This booklet has been prepared to guide you through the registration process and help you register the name correctly.
Getting It Right: Completing the Birth Registration Form
The document used to record the birth of your baby is very important and is officially called the Registration of Birth, Form C-1.
This document - which we'll call the “birth registration form” - establishes the legal identity of your child and becomes a permanent record kept by the Vital Statistics office. This is history in the making. That's why it's so important to get the information written down accurately.
The birth registration form must be completed before you leave the hospital and should be typed or printed in black ink. Make sure to include all accents and hyphens. Once you’ve made sure all the information on your child’s birth record is correct, sign the completed original birth registration form. Shaded areas of the form are for office use only.
Once the birth registration form has been filled out, read it over carefully. If you’re confident that all the information is correct, make sure both parents sign the form where required and if applicable.
If you have any questions about how to fill out this form, please ask one of the maternity ward staff to help you. They have a guide book at the nursing station.
The matter of a surname for your baby (also known as the family name or the last name) no longer means automatically bestowing the father’s surname on a child. There are, in fact, a number of options.
New Brunswick’s legislation complies with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and allows the parent(s) several options for selecting the child’s surname. However, rules have to be followed.
The Vital Statistics Act requires that all children born to the same parents be registered at birth with the same surname. In other words, if you had a baby (or babies) and registered the birth(s) in New Brunswick before, then any more children you have must be registered with that same surname.
However, if this is your first baby, you may choose from one of the options applicable to you.
For example, a combination surname can be made up from the mother’s and father’s surnames and may, if desired, be joined by a hyphen. If one or both parents have a combination surname, then you must decide which two single family names will be used for the new baby’s name.
The Vital Statistics Act also provides for the birth of a child to be registered showing a name that is determined in accordance with the child’s cultural, ethnic or religious heritage. As well, a child’s surname may be registered in its masculine or feminine form.
Once the surname of the child has been chosen, the request must be made in writing by both of the child’s parents on the birth registration form C-1.
If You And Your Spouse Are The Parents Of Your Baby
You can give your baby the family name you and your spouse share. (James and Susan Smith (née Kelly) are pleased to announce the arrival of their son, John Q. Smith).
If you and your spouse don’t have the same family name, you can agree to give the baby either one of your family names. (James Smith and Susan Kelly are pleased to announce the arrival of their son, John Q. Kelly or John Q. Smith). The maiden surname of the mother; alone or in a combination with the father’s surname, are additional options available for the surname of the child (John Q. Kelly, John Q. Kelly-Smith or John Q. Smith Kelly).
A statutory declaration must be signed stating that he isn’t and no information about him will have to be registered on the birth registration form. The mother has to request a special form for this at the hospital. Then there are several options for choosing the baby’s surname.
The mother can give her baby her present surname or her maiden surname.
If the mother and the baby’s father agree, the information about the natural father of the baby can be included on the registration form, if requested in writing by both the mother and the father. In this case, the baby can be given the mother’s present or maiden surname, the father’s surname or a combination surname made up of the mother’s present or maiden surname combined with the natural father’s surname.
It is the responsibility of both the mother and father to register the birth of the child.
Both parents are required to complete and sign the birth registration form.
The baby may be given the mother’s surname.
The baby may be given the father’s surname or a combination surname, in which case the information about the father and his signature must appear on the birth registration form.
If you and your spouse divorce before the baby is born, information about the father is required on the birth registration form and both parents have to sign it.
If the mother is married to the father and he dies before the baby is born, information about him must be included on the birth registration form and a notation made: “father deceased”.
If the baby’s mother should die before the birth is registered, the hospital staff will help the next-of-kin fill out the forms.
If your baby died after birth, you still have to fill out a birth registration form.
If your baby was stillborn, you have to fill out and sign a stillbirth registration form.
If one of these situations applies to you and you need help filling out the appropriate form, contact the nursing station.
Remember that the registration of your baby's birth becomes a permanent record and you're taking the first step in establishing his or her legal identity!
All the documents required for registering the birth of your baby should be filled in correctly and signed before you leave the hospital to go home!
It is most important that the birth registration form be filed with the Registrar General promptly, because births cannot be registered until after they have been received, duly completed, by the Vital Statistics Office.
NOTE:
If you fail to indicate a surname for your baby on this form within fourteen days, the Registrar General of the Vital Statistics office may register the birth of your baby by:
- giving your baby the same surname that you and your husband share; or
- if you and your spouse have different family names, by arranging those family names in alphabetical order. If a surname of a parent is composed of two family names, the name appearing first will make up a component of the baby’s surname.
For further information, contact:
Vital Statistics Office
Department of Health and Wellness
P. O. Box 6000
Fredericton, N.B.
E3B 5H1
OR
Vital Statistics Office
Department of Health and Wellness
435 King Street
Fredericton, NB
E3B 1E5
Telephone: (506) 453-2385
Fax: (506) 453-3245
The Vital Statistics Office will automatically issue, at no cost, an initial small size copy of the birth certificate for the baby upon completion of the birth registration process.
Subsequent requests for certificates will be subject to applicable fees.
For more information please visit:http://www.gnb.ca/0379/namebaby-e.asp#a8
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