Illinois-Chicago

Change of Name??

Hi Ladies-

I am looking to get everything organized for changing my name after the wedding- and am getting confused on what exactly I need in order to do this. I found a nice checklist of all major places to change my name, but then I read that changing your name on accounts does not legally change your name and that you have to file petitions with the state and what not. After looking into that, it requires you to fill out petitions and schedule a hearing... and it got me wondering if that is indeed what I need to do, or if the actual petitioning the state is for something else-

Does anyone know exactly how to go about changing my name in Illinois??

:)
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Re: Change of Name??

  • platinumkateplatinumkate member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    fro Illinois it says online:

    "Following your wedding ceremony, you will receive a marriage certificate, which is a piece of paper proving that you are legally married. This certificate will serve as evidence of your marriage, which you'll need when you begin the process of notifying several goverment agencies about your name change, as well as any non-government institutions that you do business with (ie, banks, employers, credit cards, memberships, etc). "

    Once you have the certificate you can then do things like social security, DMV, passport. The credit cards and health insurance name change is easy.

    http://www.ssa.gov/gethelp1.htm that link is for your social security

    IL DMV says:

    You may not receive notification of your license renewal if you have not notified the Secretary of State of a change of name or address. State law requires you to inform the Secretary of State of an address change within 10 days. Members of the U.S. Armed Forces on active duty outside Illinois, as well as their spouses and children, may drive with expired licenses for up to 90 days after their return from duty.


  • Thanks for posting this.
    I was also wondering about this and checked Illinois Legal Aids webpage. They give you step by step instructions. But basically you are required to file a petition within the Circuit Clerk's Office for the county that you live.

    Not sure if this is 100% correct, so I'd love to hear what everyone else says.
  • ZelloZello member
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    The petition is if you are changing you name just to change you name, and it was not to due to a marriage or divorce.  For example, when I was in HS, there was a family who's last name was "Ho".  Well, you can imagine what their children and probably the rest of the family went through in terms of being made fun of.  So, they wanted to change their last name to "Hur".  Because this wasn't due to any life change, they had to petition and have a hearing about why they wanted to change their name.  

    In the case of marriage or divorce, the certificate or decree serves as proof of your new name, and that is all you need to change your name at various agencies.  I just went through this process, and this is what I did for the following:

    DMV:  Took my marriage certificate and my current DL.  Cost $5, took 10 minutes. 

    Social Security:  Mailed the application, marriage certificate, my state ID, and social security card to the social security office.  They mailed back to me my marriage certificate and state ID along with a letter verifying that my new social security card with my new name would arrive within two weeks.  

    Banks:  Have not done this yet, but my bank wants to see the marriage certificate and social security card.  

    Passport: I haven't done this yet, but pretty sure you will just need your marriage certificate, driver's license, new application and new picture.  

    Credit Cards and other:  Usually a simple phone call and you can easily change your name. 

    When I went to get my marriage certificate, I bought 5 copies, because I thought certain places would want to keep it.  I was informed that no place should keep your certificate and that you should make sure to ask for it back.  

    HTH. 
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  • duckie1905duckie1905 member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    edited December 2011
    You only have to petition to change your name if you aren't changing it as a result of marriage or divorce.  If you are getting married or divorced you just need your marriage certificate (not license) or your dissolution of marriage papers to change your name.  I went to the DMV, SS office, post office (for passport) and then called my banks/cc's/doctor's office, etc.  As long as you have the marriage cert it is a fairly painless procedure.
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