Name Game (was: Re: [thechat] Driving in America
Judah McAuley
judah at alphashop.com
Mon Mar 5 11:58:19 CST 2001
At 08:19 AM 3/5/2001, you wrote:
> From what I know, which isn't much, yes. You can change your name three
> ways in the US.
>
>1) petition a court to have the name changed -- generally along the lines
>of an adoption
>2) get married and, in Illinois, they automatically hand the female the
>Social Security form to change her name.
>3) call up the local Social Security administration office and read the
>riot act until they realize I wanted /my/ name back and since the SS was
>originally under *Abbey* they grudgingly allowed me to change it back --
>for free, no court, no judge, no attorney, although they did ask for a
>copy of the divorce paper right before they admitted they didn't need it.
I took my wife's last name when I got married three years ago. Most of it
went pretty easily ( I love filling out "Maiden Name"), but the process did
confuse several people along the way. In Oregon, they basically treated
the situation just as if I was a woman getting married. Getting married
here entitles you to legally change your name without a court order. I
just had to fill out a request for a new social security card, then I
showed my marriage certificate to the DMV to get a new drivers
license. After those two things were changed, I haven't had any
problems. Except with student loans, where they don't seem to understand
that I can change my name. But I don't expect much intelligence out of them.
Judah McAuley (formerly Judah Eckenberg, formerly Judah Hammond)
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