Legitimacy (family law)

Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, illegitimacy  (or bastardy) has been the status of a child born outside marriage, such a child being known as a bastard, love child, or illegitimate when such a distinction has been made from other children. In Scots law, the terminology of a natural son or natural daughter has the same implications. The prefix “Fitz-” added to a surname (e.g., FitzRoy) sometimes denoted that the child’s parents were not married at the time of birth.