Steps to Changing Name??

erinkay81 · July 2011

I ladies,
I recently got married in Las Vegas and am a resident of Phoenix. Has anyone recently gone through the name change process here? Every time I search info online it seems conflicting. Basically wondering which Social Securitiy office you visited (it seems there are a few) or if you were able to mail in your marriage certificate to receive your new card with your new last name. TIA!!

Syndelin · July 2011

I just went to the one downtown for SS office... brought in my old SS card, and the part of the marriage license that we took home from the wedding. They changed my name in their systems, which takes about 3 days to update. After that you can go to the DMV, and get a new DL with the name you changed to with SS.

It took about 10 mins at SS (card in the mail a few weeks later), and about half an hour for the DL (get new DL right away).

After you have your DL, it's easy to change with everything else, banks and such.

Also, they advised me to keep my old DL, because it's a lot easier to just show both IDs when you're changing other things, but I haven't had anyone ask for it yet.

Celles · July 2011

I thought you had to change your name with the courts as well? Is that not the case?

DakotaMN · July 2011

No you dont have to go through the courts, you may be thinking if you go through divorce you can do a portion of that through the courts.

Syndelin · July 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_arizona-phoenix_steps-changing-name?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:71Discussion:3cf524dd-190c-4ecd-95bd-8024b2274d63Post:f4eadea3-20dc-4956-b3e8-d468095ed52b">Re: Steps to Changing Name??</a>:
[QUOTE]I thought you had to change your name with the courts as well? Is that not the case?
Posted by Celles[/QUOTE]

Only if you want to change your first or middle name(s) to something completely different. Then you have to get a legal name change order from the court.

You can drop your middle name with SS, but not with the DMV, but you can drop it down to one initial with the DMV if you want... or two if you had two middle names like me.

I have no middle name with SS now, and two middle initials with the DMV. I wanted to just have one entirely different middle name, but they wouldn't let me do it without the court order. I can still do that at some point, but then it won't be a free change anywhere.

Celles · July 2011

Oh, that makes sense. I was planning on making my maiden name my middle name, so it sounds like I would need the court order for that. Thanks for the clarification.

Syndelin · July 2011

You shouldn't for that. As long as it's not a completely new name, they can do it.

It's really weird, but they did say I could use my maiden name for middle. I just wanted to get rid of both of my middle and my maiden names, so it got messy. LOL

bibliophile2010 · July 2011

I had no trouble at SS making my maiden name my middle name (First Maiden Married).

I had only a clerical error at the MVD getting it done -- it was wrong (First Middle Married) when I got the new license. I said something right away and they fixed it on the spot when I showed them the SS receipt with my name as First Maiden Married. I had to go to the MVD after work one day, so it was the end-of-day rush, so I waited a long time to get to the counter, but there was no problem getting the change taken care of once I did.

erinkay81 · August 2011

Thank you! I'm going to take my chances and go to the office on 59th and Bell in Glendale since it is about 2 seconds from my work. Hopefully it works!

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