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Question:Can you legally change your last name to something you want without getting married?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Can you legally change your last name to something you want without getting married?

In the US, you can legally change your name to anything you want - of course within limits, such as you can't change your last name to something with a number or non-alphabetic symbol.

Check with your county court system on how to do this - it is the same process (pretty much) as marital name changes so the procedures are pretty easy to find on the county web sites.

It always involves filling out a form or two and paying a fee. If it is a marital name change (and you have a marriage license), that's about it.

For non-marital name changes, most places require you to appear before a judge, magistrate or special official. They will ensure that you are not changing your name to avoid prosecution or to hide from debts or other obligations (and make you state this explicitly). The reason is that you are under oath when you do this so if it subsequently found that this is the reason, they got you on purgery - much easier to prove and prosecute.

But this isn't something to be done on a whim or taken lightly. While it is an easy process, other than marital name changes (which the entire society is geared to handle easily) can cause hassles in the future. It can cause credit acquisition problems (certainly not insurmountable, but definitely a hassle) and anything requiring a security clearance or any kind of background investigation can take substantially longer (again, not a major, insurmountable problem, but a hassle).

But if you do change your name make sure YOU contact the Social Security Administration - don't rely on the county or others to do this. Especially in today's world, if the Social Security Number and Name don't match, that is a major hassle (even could cause being held in custody). And it could cause problems with certain crediting that could affect your future benefits.

Yes, through your local courts. Usually a small fee for paperwork and document recording.

Yes you can. In the UK you can be known by any name you choose as long as it isn't for fraudulent reasons, if you wish to make the name change official without getting married you can change it by DEED POLL, it costs around £40:00 and is done through a solicitor.
Hope this helps.

think so

Yes, you just have to go to a courthouse and get the paper work and the judge has to approve it.

I know an artist who changed his name once a month for a year... and created different artwork for each name.