Name Change in Pennsylvania: Why Change your name?
You’ve been thinking about Name Change, but will legally changing your name solve the issue you wish to address? In Pennsylvania, as in most states, you can legally change your name for just about any reason – as long as you are not trying to avoid debt, liens, judgments, criminal charges, or other legal issues. Because there are so many ways a person might hide their reasons for wanting a name change, in Pennsylvania you must go before a county judge with background checks in hand and proof that you published notice of your Name Change Hearing to give others a chance to object to your petition. The judge has ultimate discretion as to whether to grant the name change.
Some issues that legal name change can help solve are:
- Correcting errors on your birth certificate
- Making sure all governmental documentation and proof of identity spell your name identically
- Correcting errors in your educational, civil service or military records
- Changing your name to match your gender identity
- Resuming your maiden name after divorce (this is so common it does not require a Hearing before a judge)
- Changing your name to a hyphenated or combined last name after marriage, if you wish to create a new hybrid surname for both spouses.
- Changing a child’s surname to that of the biological parent who is primary caretaker (If one parent is absent from the child’s life) – Note: this does not include full or stepparent adoption name changes, which is a separate legal process
- Changing your legal name to match the one you have already been known by for a significant period of time
- You don’t like your given name so you wish to choose a new one
- You want your name to sound either more ethnic or religious, or less so
- You wish to change your name for marketing reasons – for instance, a name that better matches your profession
- You want to make a political or artistic statement with your name
- You are a victim of abuse and you wish to prevent your abuser from locating you.
In this day and age, it is extremely difficult to erase your entire identity and start over. But smaller changes in spelling or your given or surname can help ease certain difficulties, both legal and emotional. In addition, county courts are generally sensitive to issues surrounding minors, transgender individuals or victims of abuse who wish to avoid unreasonable or illegal harassment. It is possible to seal a name change record or omit publication of the Hearing date if there is serious threat of injury to the person seeking the name change.
I can help you with your Name Change, whatever your reason. Contact my office at 215-345-5259 for a free first consult about changing your name.
-Elissa C. Goldberg, Esquire