I can’t remember if we talked about this on this board or not, but another thread got me thinking – what goes into an adult legally changing his or her first name? I’ve heard in the past they have to post it in the newspaper or something? Not sure what that’s about. Anyone know what goes into it and how long something like that takes? [name]Just[/name] curious.
Not sure where you’re located but if you’re in the US, the process differs from state to state. I would suggest googling what the exact procedure is for your state because most (if not all) require that you file a court petition and appear before a judge. I’m not sure how long the entire process would take, but I’d assume anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.
I live in [name]Ontario[/name], [name]Canada[/name], here we have to request a form and pay a fee. It’s also published in an online gazette, but you have to go looking for it online, also if you have a legitimate reason to want it out of the gazette, you can explain that and they can omit it. The form is really a request for a name change, but most people are approved. If not you can go to court to fight it.
It depends on the state. In [name]Florida[/name] where I legally changed my name about ten years ago it cost around $100 to file for the name change, had to go in front of a judge to sign the papers at the county court house. All in all it took about two weeks from the time I filed to the time the judge signed off on it. Actually changing your name is not the hard part, it’s changing over all the things you have in your previous legal name [titles, deeds, bank accounts, etc], which depending on how much you have can take some time. However, I didn’t have any trouble, I just faxed or sent a copy of the legal name change document.
The only real trouble I had was getting certain people to call me by my new name.
Thanks everyone!
In New [name]York[/name] State, you complete a petition for individual name change, and that gets to submitted to a judge who will either OK it or refuse the petition. There is a $65 fee for making the petition. If it gets approved, you then have to announce the name change in the newspaper, for which there is also a charge for.
I know a handful of people who petitioned to change their names, for various reasons, and all were approved.
About the only reason I know of that people get their name change denied is if they are doing so hide from law enforcement or escape having to pay debt [obviously if you are on the lamb going to a court house and petitioning for a legal name change is insane, but I’m guessing someone out there must have done it at some point.] Also, if you were to try changing it to a outrageously offensive name, I could see a judge denying the request.
I found a free guide to change your name at www.howtochangeyourname.com. It provides the forms free and takes you through each step. Or, wikihow has a nice guide here and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page it has every State’s how to guide but I do not think it contains all the forms necessary.