3 Vital Aspects Concerned with Legal Name Change

There comes a time in life when you need to opt for legal name change. This change can be with regards to your middle, last or first name too. There can be varied reasons for this name change; such as, divorce, marriage, gender change or just for the sake of being bored by the existing name. The reasons may be varied, but legal procedures are involved in all of these.

The primary aspect that you need to always remember; irrespective of the reason for your name change, is the process. Obtaining the legal documents for changing your name is important. For this, you need to get hold of other important supporting documents such as your divorce decree, marriage certificate, petition granted by court and so on. Keep in mind that your new name will not be considered legal unless you submit duly filled applications to Department of Motor Vehicles, Social Security Administration and other entities.

Mentioned below are some important points that are connected to your legal name change.

Any name is permissible, expect for some exceptions

There are chances that you are not happy with the name you got at birth and expect to change it legally. However, there are certain names that you are not allowed to take. You cannot take names of celebrities and this is usually considered to be intentionally misleading. You are not allowed to take a name that is trademarked or is a numerical or a punctuation mark. Anything obscene or offensive is also not permissible.

There are some other important aspects here. You cannot change name for committing some fraud or evading enforcement of law. Avoiding debt payments and other such aspects too are considered in this regards.

One important aspect to consider is that you need to be very sure of the spelling of your new selected name. There are some cases wherein people just expect to change name due to misspelling.

The easiest time for legal name change is during divorce or marriage

Almost every state witnesses that people engage in legally changing their last names to spouse's name, or hyphenate two surnames, or create an amalgamation of surnames.

If you are married and intend to get your name changed, an order from court will not be necessary. You just need to get the new name on marriage license and produce the same to institutions such as Social Security Administration, Department of Motor Vehicles, banks, Passport authorities etc. This acts a proof for your name change request.

In case of changing name after divorce, you need to get this legally done via a judge during divorce proceedings. The new name needs to appear of Divorce Decree before you start using maiden name or some other name of your choice.

Hiring a lawyer is not a need

Though the process of legal name change seems to be daunting and aspects such as showing up in court or filling legal documents are overwhelming, need of a lawyer is not much of a necessity. Filing Petition in court for name change is not that difficult a process. However, even in spite of this if you think that this process overwhelms you, taking help from online agencies engaged in this trade is the apt solution instead of hiring a lawyer.

Online agencies engaged in legal name change procedures aid you in every step of the process. You just need to fill in simple forms and these agencies take care of the process thereafter. Moreover, these agencies also offer different packages to suit varied budgets and needs. So just by choosing a package and filling a form, your work is done with ease.

Following the above mentioned points can be good for your intent of getting your name changed legally.