Branch v. Quattrocchi

OPINION

What’s in a child’s surname that would entitle a parent to change it? Only the child’s best interests, we have held, can warrant such a renaming. Here, the defendant, William Quattrocchi, Jr. (father), appeals from a Family Court order granting the motion of the plaintiff, Eloise Branch (mother), to change the surname of their minor child from that of the mother’s surname (Branch) when the child was born on June 27, 1994, to that of the child’s stepfather, William Ricci, who married the mother on February 14, 1999. A single justice of this Court ordered both parties to show cause why…