If you’ve ever had a small doubt about changing your name to your spouse’s surname when you get married, and you say to yourself, “well self, I can always just do it later,” I’d like to walk you through how that “later” part works out in Westchester County, NY.
First, let me compare it to New York City. In all five boroughs: Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island; you may simply go to this website:
https://lawhelpinteractive.org/login_form?template_id=template.2011-12-19.3223810918&set_language=en
Then you fill out the self guided form, pay your $65.00 and slowly, but surely you are on your way. Not bad.
In Westchester County, the process is three-fold, as follows:
I. Filing in the County Clerk’s Office
1) If born in the State of New York, you must gather your original or certified copy of Birth Certificate;
2) Provide the court with a Self-Addressed/Stamped Envelope;
3) Fill out the Name Change Order and Petition and bring the original along with a copy to the Clerk’s Office;
4) Next you may need to file a Request for Judicial Intervention form in triplicate (original and 2 copies;
5) And finally, for name changes in Supreme Court, there is a fee of $210, made payable to the local County Clerk.
II. Next is simple. You wait. Usually 6-12 weeks for the Order and Petition to be approved and signed by a judge.
III. Publication
1) Then publish a legal notice that your name has been changed in a local newspaper that will be on the Order.
2) This will cost another $50-$100 depending on the paper.
After an affidavit of publication is received from the local newspaper, the last step is to hand that back into the County Clerk’s office. I always pay the $5 each for 3 certified and stamped copies of the order so that my client can send them out to the various governmental agencies to actually change their name.
The take-away message is pretty clear in my book though. If you are thinking about taking your spouse’s surname, you may fill your new name into a box on the marriage certificate and submit it on your marriage day, or you can go through the steps listed above. That choice of course, is yours.
Please note there are some situations, serious situations, where these would not be the appropriate steps to changing a person or minor’s name. And although I’ve listed steps above to facilitate a name change, my only advice would be to contact an attorney before proceeding with any legal affair.
