General

Many wives change their name.

Yeah I was wondering that. Women do it when they get married, so in that sense getting one's name changed seems really common and kind of mundane almost. But then again the process would be different for marriage probably. I assume anyways.

But at the same time I wonder why that is even a thing. Seems antiquated somehow. Why not get married and just y'know keep your original names. Or would that unravel civilization as we know it.

egg wrote:

It's tradition. Some people do it, some don't.

For doing it outside of a marriage or obtaining citizenship situation, it depends where you live. Typically it's a court procedure, and at the end you get an order showing your old name is now officially changed to your new name.

Most jurisdictions won't let you do it to try to avoid creditors or otherwise skirt the law. Some jurisdictions have additional requirements like you have to have been using the new name commonly for a certain amount of time, etc.

Just do an internet search to check your state's laws, I'm sure you will find more helpful info specific to your situation.

Your bio says your are in New York. Here is their page for name changes

https://www.nycourts.gov/courthelp/namechange/basi...

Are you in the running to change your name to Subway?

I wonder what the rules are. Can you legally change your first name to "Bookshelf" for example?

There's a woman in Florida politics named Tiffany Justice. That can't be her birth name can it?

There’s a guy in Virginia who changed his name to Trout Fishing in America.

nonamesleft wrote:

I read that Penn Jilette named his daughter Roxy Crimefighter. So it seems parents are not required to use their last name when naming the kid. Tiffany Justice is not out of the question.

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:
Interesting because Trout is a last name. And it does sound like it can be a first name too. Fisher is a last name, but Fishing? Haven't heard that as a last name before.

This form asks if you were convicted of a crime. Can't I just say no?
https://eforms.com/name-change/ny

edit: Nevermind, I didn't know that traffic tickets aren't considered crimes.

Parents sometimes get creative in naming their kids and don't really think about how it might affect them when they grow up. The actress in CSI is Pauley Perrett. I worked with a girl named Melody Belles. She couldn't wait to get married.

I also worked with a girl whose mother spelled her name Mellsia on her birth certificate, but pronounced it Melissa. She had to spell it that way on all forms and write it as her signature. For some reason she spelled it that way on her name tag, so she was constantly having to correct people's pronunciation ("Mel sea ah" or "Mel sha") and explaining the spelling.

I would think Pauley Perrete has been objectively proven to be a winning name seeing as how she managed to be as successful as she is.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauley_Perrette

Coincidentally I was watching some yt videos where I learned that Arnold and Harrison Ford were both advised to get their name changed if they wanted to be successful actors.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/MmM_qXblvWs
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Ao31tsf3viI

It used to be common in Hollywood for actors to change their names to sound less ethnic or even just to have fewer syllables to be more memorable.

Would John Wayne have been as successful or as iconic as he was if he had continued to use his real name of Marion Morrison? Or Tony Curtis if he had used Bernard Schwartz?

In A Fish Called Wanda, John Cleese's character is named Archie Leach. Archibald Leach became famous in Hollywood after changing his name to Cary Grant.

Of course, two of these were used in the famous Cheers episode when Cliff Claven competed on Jeopardy: Entering Final Jeopardy, Cliff has amassed $22,000, with his closest competitor having only $3,300. However, under a category of "MOVIES", Cliff foolishly wagers his entire $22,000 and is stumped by the clue of "Archibald Leach, Bernard Schwartz and Lucille LeSueur". Cliff's response of "Who are three people who have never been in my kitchen?" is deemed humorous, but incorrect. (The correct response was "What were the real names of Cary Grant, Tony Curtis and Joan Crawford?")

Bleed_DukeBlue wrote:
I just realized something that I completely overlooked when I saw your post a couple days ago. You didn't say that his name was Trout Fishing. You said his name was Trout Fishing in America.

Ha!

But that's the name of a musical duo from Texas. I guess this guy really likes their music.

In this day and age of having to provide so much information for loans, applications, credit checks, etc...I personally wouldn't want another barrier to that unless your current name was unbearable.

So apparently changing my last name to my mom's maiden name would be more death metal than changing it to something like Kirby or Batman.
https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft/status/16933240361...
https://twitter.com/CovenantReform2/status/1693331...

egg wrote:

I had a friend who did that. His dad was a deadbeat who abandoned the family when my friend was a kid.

As soon as he was old enough to do it, he changed his last name to his mom's instead.

benstylus wrote:
Similar story. A young man in my church had a deadbeat dad. When he got married, he and his wife took his mom's maiden name for their family name as a way to honor his grandmother.

My father was an alcoholic and my parents divorced when I was too young to even remember my father. My mom remarried before my brother and I enter elementary school (kindergarten wasn't required). I don't know how she got away with it, but she enrolled us in school under her husband's last name. I didn't start using my real last name until Junior High.

I changed a letter in my last name when I was in college like 20 years ago. There was a typo on my grandfathers birth certificate and it changed an “a” into an “i” so I fixed it and changed it back. It was a surprisingly easy and cheap process. I could answer any questions from my experience. The hardest part is just updating your IDs. New drivers license, new Social Security card, etc. but otherwise, pretty easy and smooth.

That article is a riot. xD

The thought of changing my last name crossed my mind a long time ago. First off, my grandfather was adopted and took the name of his new family. My grandpa...hmm...let's just say that he wasn't a very good guy. Not to his wife and kids, nor to the general public (at least according to the newspapers articles that I've found online). Secondly, many of his descendants aren't really people of character either, including my brothers. I don't think my last name goes over too well in some places (thanks, lil' bros.!). It also doesn't help that have the same first and last name as a Nazi from WWII.


The thought of changing my last named sounded appealing at one point when I was younger, but only for a moment. Besides, who's name would I take? Ideally, I would take my grandfather's original last name, but the name Güldenpfennig is long, hard to spell, and just sounds a bit crazy,

citizen_zane wrote:

Change it to Super Neg Man and I bet Bill would give you some free subtime

There was a lady running for some local office in NY named Zephyr Teachout.

When FB Groups had just started a guy made a group "If this group gets 1 million members, I will name my baby Megatron" - group hit the number and everybody was waiting for the guy to update the group. He replied with "son was born, we named him Steve. Sorry." Or something along those lines.

I thought it was funny how closely this meme relates to my situation
https://twitter.com/LibertyCappy/status/1696251094...

My mom's last name is more feminine sounding than my dad's. But it has to be coincidence I guess, bc her dad would've also had it. In theory, at least. o.o

I've hit my first snag, apparently in Poland there are male and female equivalents to everyone's last name, meaning that the name I was considering is actually the feminime version, while the male version is slightly different. To be exact it's only the last letter that's different, but now I'm not 100% sure I want the name anymore. I'd honestly prefer to have the feminine version (it's not like anyone would know, and up until today even I didn't know) the problem is my mom would find it weird. x_x

I'm angsting over one letter being different lol

So when I got married and changed mine, I had to provide the marriage certificate and get my SS card first, then I could do all the rest.

I do notaries all the time for people changing names at my store. Most of them are people transitioning to the opposite gender. But I remember one guy who had a real crapty name (not literally a boy named Sue but similar... maybe it was Yancy or Nancy and he was a man and wasn't trans.) I remember he changed it to Stephen or something. He complimented me on my eyes because mine are very light blue almost silver. I complimented him on his name "hey nice name" and it was real smooth. lol

But anyway it might also vary by state and is a huge pain in the ass to change everything so be very sure with your choice so you only have to do it once!! I have said if I ever get divorced I'm going back to my maiden name and never changing it again if I happen to re-marry.

Can I do the name change and then get my photo ID taken the same day using the new name? Or is there a period of time I have to wait for the name change to be processed/finalized?

It would be really convenient if I can do both in the same trip, especially considering there is a civil court just a few blocks away from the DMV I went to for my previous ID.

I am guessing if the answer is no it would be bc I need I wait for them to send me a letter in the mail. But other than that I don't see the issue.
And besides, when receiving a learners permit or license plate they give you a temporary one right away, and mail you the real one later, so you're not forced to wait. They hopefully do something like that for name changes.

I think it's just gonna depend on your state and how they do it. Sometimes they have to have you request the change and get a new SS card before getting an ID and if you need the REAL ID it might even be more complicated.
I would just call your court and see. It could be simple and quick or take several days. I honestly think it's gonna be the latter.

Oh and I was trying to decide if I should get a photo id before changing my name as well as after, to make it easier to prove my identity.

The problem w this is I don't know how long you have to wait after getting a photo ID before you're allowed to get a new one.

edit: this page makes it sound like you're generally supposed to keep the one you have.
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-change-your-unflatte...
But if I change my name I obviously have to update it right?
Maybe I take it slow and get a photo id, wait until I receive it, change my name, then re apply.
Or the fast way which I would rather do and was planning on doing so as not to look like a weirdo: change my name first, then get my photo id and that way I'd only have to do it once.

I think you need to change your name and get the photo ID after. I think with a name change/address change you can update it at any time for a fee. It's renewals that they restrict (at least in my state) to 60 days before expiration or less.

But they won't give you a new ID and put any name on it, it has to have paperwork signed/sealed/filed to make the change on your ID (and SS card completed I believe.)

Of course if you don't have any valid ID at the moment you might have to do that first.

I don't that's the problem. Theoretically I ought to be able to do get an ID then change my name then get a new ID back-to-back, but I'm guessing I would be prevented from doing that *because reasons.*

I have other forms of identification though, so I would try to change my name before doing anything else and simply find out if I get turned away or not.
Might do it sometime this week. But we'll see.

For a notary and pretty much any legal document type change anywhere, we can only take a non expired gov issued ID (license, passport, passport card, military ID, greencard/visa -- not the credit card, lol) So if you got one of those there's no need to get an ID first, just an extra step you don't need.

But yeah, I see you're in NY and they do have some extra stuff other states don't have. Best of luck!