Register a birth

Re-registrations

There are two types of re-registration available:

  • to add a natural father onto an existing birth registration or
  • to change an existing birth registration to show the natural parents as married

How to add the father’s details to a birth certificate

When a birth is registered, the father may not be able to attend the original appointment. Where the parents are not legally married this would result in the fathers details being left blank.

If the parents are unmarried and would like the natural father’s details added to the birth record, they need to re-register the birth so that a new birth record can be created to replace the original one. To re-register in this instance you need to wait six months from the date of the original registration.

To apply to add the father's details to a birth certificate, go to the GOV.UK website, where you can get the application forms and find out more.

The parents have married each other since the birth

If the natural parents have married each other since the birth, they need to re-register the birth so that a new birth record can be created showing the child as a child of the parents’ marriage. The parents are legally obliged to re-register the birth, ideally within three months of the marriage. 

To apply to re-register the birth, go the GOV.UK website, where you can get the application forms and find out more.