Hi all. I am asking this here because I know that laws regarding name change, such as after marriage, vary from state to state. Also, Ohio is one of the 6 pesky states that requires a legal name change when adding your maiden name as a second middle name (which is what I want to do), and so I wanted to hear if anyone had some experience with this.
I have a very ethnic last name. It also is really long, 13 letters, and so I in no way want to hyphenate my FI's last name and my current last name. However, I really want to keep this last name (what would be my maiden name) as a part of my legal name for two reasons. 1. I am very attached to it as a symbol of my heritage, it feels just as much a part of my identity as my first name. 2. I already have graduated college with my bachelors degree, I have an undergraduate thesis and other research I have completed with my current last name, and I will be starting graduate school before we get married, and hence my work there in the first year will be under my current last name.
So, in order to add my current last name as a middle name, and take my FI's surname as mine, I will need to petition for a change of name according to the laws of Ohio. My snafu comes into play as I just looked at the form and it says the county you have been a resident in for the past year. Well, we're going to be moving soon to a different county, and I'm worried that by the time the wedding comes around we won't have been residing there for a year. Do I just have to wait it out and put my petition in after we hit that year anniversary? Anyone have a similar experience to this, and how did you find the Ohio court system to be as far as difficulty navigating the name change process.