California how do i change my name

Cancel Print. Advanced Search. Change an Adult's Name. Choose the option that best fits your situation: File a name change petition Filing a Petition for a Change of Name is the most common process and results in a court order. By Emily Doskow , Attorney. What's in a name? Well, if the number of people who request a name change in California are any indication, there's a lot to a name. Fortunately, name changes are not complicated, even though you'll probably need to go to court to do it.

Changing your name used to be fairly simple. After a few years, your new name would become your official legal name. Today, because of identity theft and fears of fraud and terrorism, agencies require that you have a court order changing your name before allowing any changes to your legal record. Taking your spouse's name. The only exception to using the court method is changing your name after getting married —as long as one spouse is taking the other spouse's name. You can take your marriage license to the DMV and fill out a simple form in this situation.

You can do the same with the Social Security Administration. But in all other situations, you'll want to use the court method, including if you and your spouse both want to change your names to a completely new name. Domestic partners. For a short time, the DMV treated registered domestic partners like married couples for purposes of name changes after marriage—but no more. Even though it's inconsistent with California law stating that domestic partners and married couples are the same, the DMV won't change one partner's name to match the other's after domestic partnership registration without a court order.

However, if you register your domestic partnership on or after January 1, , the California Name Equality Act of permits domestic partners to request a name change on the Certificate of Domestic Partnership form, which you'll submit at the time you register your partnership. If you request the name change on the certificate, you may present that certificate as proof of your new name. You can change your name or the name of your child by going to court.

You can switch to just about any name you want, with a few exceptions:. You can also use the court method to restore your former name after a divorce. But it's a lot easier to get your former name restored as part of the divorce. That hearing will be about weeks after you file the Petition. Almost always, you get your judge-signed Court Order on the hearing date.

Some courts take longer than that because of cutbacks and scheduling problems. You need the Certified Copy to get your most important records changed. It will take you from 6 weeks to 6 months usually 8 weeks or so to get your Court Order. No one Changes their most important records for you automatically. All the most important ones social security, birth certificate, DMV, passport, etc.

Some may want your fingerprints. Like step 1, above, the time it takes to get all your records changed will depend on how much concentrated time you can spend doing it.

Each of the places you need to change records will have their own specific forms and procedures to learn and follow. However, it may take you months to get all your accounts changed over. Changing all the little records will take will take a little longer.

Whenever you may decide to get a Name Change Started , we can have your Petition paperwork done properly in no time flat!