Acknowledgement of paternity implies a duty on the father to name the child. The right of the child to bear its biological father’s name is guaranteed by the Children’s Act which states that no person shall deprive a child of the right from birth to a name.

The father may prove his paternity in various way thereby giving him the right to name his child:

• An entry of name of a father in the registration of the birth of the child is admissible in court as evidence of paternity
• If the child is born during the subsistence marriage
• If it is proved through a DNA test that he is the father of the child
• If he publicly acknowledges paternity

A person whose name has been entered in the register of Birth as the father of the child can challenge the correctness of the entry if it can be proved that it was naturally, physically or scientifically impossible for him to be the father.

Likewise, a child born during the marriage is presumed to be the child of the marriage unless it can be proved that the husband could not be physically or biological or scientifically the father of the child.

If the acknowledgement of paternity was obtained by fraud, deceit, duress, fear or mistake of fact or ignorance of the relevant facts, he can revoke the acknowledgment.

The natural father or biological father may be deprived of his right to name a child he has with a woman who is not his wife. However, this ought not to be regarded as an absolute rule because of the various ways to prove paternity in modern times.

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