I Want To Legally Change My Name (Bad Idea?)
 

I would like to respectfully change my legal name from my dads given name to my mothers maiden name. I would like to know if anyone has ever looked into something like this and if it's bad news or fairly simple? I know women get married all the time and change their last name but for a male, I would guess it's the same. Besides the obvious of dealing with some kind of clerk employee and replacing my DL ID and SS card, is there anything else I should be aware of? I would have to change all my payroll info and notify work but beyond that I am wondering if this is a bad idea.

Let me know what you guys think.

I am not hiding from any law enforcement or trying to avoid prosecution of any kind as I am a DoD employee. Just doing this for personal reason in respect for my family.

Honestly i dont know but i know it would stir confusion.

Obviously it is a slightly more hassle-free process when marriage is the cause of the name change, though not necessarily cheaper.
I cannot speak to specifics of how it works in the U.S. where you appear to be, but here in Canada, one must apply to the Registrar General in the Department of Vital Statistics. You get a change of name form, which has a bunch of typical government-type questions on it, which you eventually submit back to them with some $$$ for approval. While this is happening, one must also file an 'article' with whatever your locale's internally-circulated government Gazette is called, notifying all who might be interested, that "john Smith" plans to change their name to "Fred Jones". You must pay for this too, both for filing the article, as well as paying for the particular issue of this Gazette which contains your article.
The purpose of this article is so that things like government departments, creditors, law enforcement, etc. can be made aware of the pending name change, thereby not allowing people to skip on debts or elude law enforcement by changing their name (as you might imagine, this has happened many times).
Once you get your copy of the issue of the Gazette with your notice in it, you take it, and the application for change of name, and the $$$, to the Vital Stats people. If all goes well, you will get a legal document stating the old name, the fact that it changed, and the new name. Using this document, you proceed to go about getting all your ID replaced, which of course, costs more $$$. Your SIN or SSI number never changes; you have the same # till you're dead; but you can get a new card with the name corrected.

That's the basics in Canada. And, changing ones' first name only, is much less of a hassle than changing either ones last name, or BOTH names. IIRC, changing only the first name does not require the Gazette part of all this, but changing the last name or whole name, does require it.

Best thing to do is to contact your Vital Statistics department and inquire about details specific to your locale..

Sasha

On the other hand, here in GB, you merely need to start applying your chosen name to yourself and that's it. There's no need to register by deed poll up until you start getting new identification documents for yourself.

You absolutely need to check into whatever your equivalent of a citizen's advice bureau (we'd call it here in Britain) is, and get yourself clued up. But AFAIK if you're all legit there's absolutely no problem with changing your name.

I remember when I worked in telecanvassing calling a woman called "Mrs. Friendship". I'm reasonably convinced, not only be her being the only one in the entire electoral role to possess said surname, but also by her very nature in conversation, that she had her name changed. If she managed it, so can you. Good luck.

http://www.uslegalforms.com/fl/FL-NAME-3.htm
It seems to cost a fortune.

For legal advice you should really consult a lawyer. The US law is based on the British model, so gold leaf's comment is probably applicable. I do know that, when my daughter entered high school in New Jersey, she changed her given name from Jessica to Cindy, and the school had no problem with that. (When she wanted to go to college, she did get some grief because her HS transcript appeared to be for someone with a different name, since, by then, she'd reverted.)

Note that nowhere in this process did she need any "legal" name-change documents.

Bottom line: It's my understanding that you can name yourself anything you want as long as your name change is not for any criminal purpose. But I'm not a lawyer (although the daughter above mentioned is now one). All you get by going to court is a certified paper stating that you're now using a different name that you can show someone when you request new copies of your idenity documents in your new name.

So which name last or first ? It's easier to change your first name for sure. I probably will at some point, or I can just tell people my name is different from what it say on the paper ... like many other people do, especially at school and work. What do I care what it says on my bills or credit card. If you want to be called by a different name just tell people to do so, that's the easiest way. But if you want a complete change, then it will be somewhat more difficult.

I think if you changed your last name, not only would you have to update your SSN, accounts, employment info, but also amend birth cert. too? I have no idea, I am just speculating but I would imagine there is a lot of work to be done to do this kind of thing. I think in the end the best advice given on LQ is to contact a lawyer for this kind of thing.


Still kinda OT so: If I were to change my name/surname I would probably go for Max Power or better yet, Chuck Steak. Ok, thats my 'joke' for this thread. Back to seriousness.

Seek a lawyer on this matter.

In Canada, the birth certificate gets automatically repaired as a result of the name change process (the old birth cert is required to be turned in to vital stats upon application for name change).
However, after all said and done, one still has to pay $$$ to actually GET a copy of the new certificate ;)

Sasha

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_change
succes

whizje