Two short sections of the Adoption of Children Act (Chapter 275) deal with the practical consequences of an adoption order for a child’s identity.
Section 30 — the child’s name
(1) Subject to subsection (2), on the making of an adoption order the adopted child has —
(a) as his surname — the surname of the adoptive parent or parents; and
(b) as his given name or names — such name or names as the Court, on the application of the adoptive parents, approves in the adoption order.
(2) Where, before the making of the order, the adopted child has been generally known by a particular surname, the Court may, in the adoption order, order that the child have that name as his surname.
(3) This section does not prevent the changing of a name of an adopted child, after the making of the order, in accordance with law.
The surname follows automatically from the adopters — consistent with section 28(1)(a), under which the child becomes a child of the adopters as if born to them in lawful wedlock.
The given names do not. They are whatever the Court approves, on the adopters’ application. So the Court has a say in whether an older child keeps the name they have always answered to.
Where a child has been generally known by a particular surname — commonly the surname of relatives who raised the child under customary arrangements — the Court may order that the child keeps it.
This matters for an adult adoption under section 6(1)(b), where the person has been brought up, maintained and educated by the applicants for years and may be known professionally and in the community by an established name.
It also aligns with the modern statement of principle in section 5(1)(j) of the Lukautim Pikinini Act 2015, which requires a child’s name, identity, language, cultural and religious ties to be preserved as far as possible.
Subsection (3) leaves the ordinary law of name change untouched, so nothing here is permanent.
Section 31 — the child’s domicile
(1) Subject to this section, on the making of an adoption order —
(a) the adopted child acquires the domicile of the adoptive parents at the date of the adoption order; and
(b) the child’s domicile afterwards shall be determined as if the child had been born in lawful wedlock to those parents.
(2) The domicile so acquired shall be deemed to be also the child’s domicile of origin.
Domicile is the connecting factor much of the law uses to decide which country’s legal system governs a person’s affairs. Under Papua New Guinean law it determines, among other things:
- Jurisdiction to grant a divorce — section 14 of the Matrimonial Causes Act (Chapter 282) requires domicile in the country;
- Recognition of a foreign divorce — section 79 of that Act turns on the domicile of the party who obtained it;
- Succession to movable property on intestacy.
A domicile of origin is normally acquired at birth and can never be lost — it revives whenever a domicile of choice is abandoned. It is one of the few things about a person the law treats as fixed.
Section 31(2) replaces it. The domicile the child acquires from the adopters is deemed to be also the child’s domicile of origin — as though the child had been born to them.
The practical effect is that the adopted child’s legal history is rewritten to match the adoption. There is no residual connection with the birth family’s domicile that could revive later in life.
That is consistent with the completeness of section 28(1), which applies for the purpose of all laws — and with the confidentiality provisions, which are designed so that the birth connection does not surface: section 14 requires identifying documents to be sealed, and sections 63 and 65 restrict disclosure and inspection.
Section 59 — the register
Section 59 requires particulars of adoption orders to be forwarded to the Registrar General, so that the change of name and status is recorded in the civil registration system.
That is how an adopted child obtains identity documents in the adoptive family’s name. Section 60 provides for sending a memorandum of orders to other countries, and section 61 for receiving particulars of orders from States or Territories.
Both sections 30 and 31 are subject to section 5 — the welfare and interest of the child concerned as the paramount consideration — which is the standard against which the Court decides what given names to approve under section 30(1)(b) and whether to preserve an existing surname under section 30(2).
Sources
- Adoption of Children Act (Chapter 275) — ss 5, 6, 14, 28–31, 59–61, 63, 65
- Matrimonial Causes Act (Chapter 282) — ss 14, 79
- Lukautim Pikinini Act 2015 — s 5
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the Marriage Act (Chapter 280) and check for later amendments. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.