Legally Change Your Name

It is possible to legally change your name after divorce or after your marriage. In addition to this, changing the name on a person's own wish is also possible provided he meets all the essential criteria for the same. Many people get bored with their names and finally decide to have a new one, but fail to do it legally, due to the lack of rules and regulations for doing so. Given in the next paragraph is the answer to the question - how to legally change your name after marriage.

How Can You Change Your Name Legally?

If you wish to change your name after marriage, you should have all the important documents which have been duly certified by competent authorities. This is because you will have to produce copies of these documents to different government offices, institutes and at your work place. You will have to contact your local government body and fill up the form for change of name. In the case of men wishing to change their name after marriage, they should find the space which will indicate their name change on their marriage certificate. When you officially get your new name, you should get your new name on your passport. However, to do this successfully, there is a procedure to follow. You should visit the passport office and submit a fully and correctly filled form for amendment of your passport. At this time, you will have to submit details of your current passport and the papers issued to you after your name has been changed. This is a very important step while you legally change your name. Apart from the passport office, you should also inform your office where you work, banks where you own an account, finance institutions from whom you have sought finance, insurance companies, investment institutions and the medical health care providers.

If you are eager to change your name for any other reasons, you should visit the court and get a form which has to be filled for the name change process, after paying a form fee which is quite affordable. Once you fill this form, you will get an extra copy of the form from the concerned authorities. The next step will be to prove your identity and getting a copy of your fingerprints. After this, you will have to go through a police verification process, which is common almost in all parts of the world. You will have to submit a copy of fingerprints to the police with which they will find out if you have any precious or current criminal record. With the help of this procedure, the police are able to catch people who are changing their names to hide their crimes. Once you get a green signal from the court, you should visit a newspaper and ask them to print your intent in the newspaper. You should remember that you may not get your desired name if it is the name of some celebrity or is a controversial name. The final authority in allotting the name is with the court.

When the announcement of your name change is done in the newspaper, you will get a written declaration from the newspaper, which you need to carry for your final hearing in the court. If you are able to give satisfactory answers to the questions raised by the court during the course of the hearing, then you will finally get the name you wished to have. Once this is done, you can disclose it to everyone who is related to you. You can also take some legal advice from well-known lawyers to complete this process without making any sort of errors.

By now you must have understood how to legally change your name. This procedure might take time, but you will be very happy once you get your desired name. Best of luck for the adventure!