Rules vary depending on the State where one is located. Indeed, even within a particular State, they can vary depending on WHAT LANE you happen to be in as you come upon the officer stopped at the side of the road...
Without knowing what State this was in, it is difficult to say WHAT to expect. As an example, if this were a Texas case, I would be able to tell you NOTHING definite would happen on Wednesday. You would likely be given an offer but otherwise, it would be an appearance that resulted only in a later setting being made (I actually have a personal matter next week on an initial appearance for a case from before xmas and I have routinely strung out speeding tickets across four or five settings before getting them dismissed).
Spend some time reviewing the actual Transportation Code (or equivalent for your jurisdiction) to determine what obligations exist. However, realize also that you are not likely to win a he said-she said battle with the cop's description of events. In such an instance, I would probably look for a deferred disposition that entailed no violations of the same type for 90 days in that jurisdiction...and without a requirement for a defensive driving class.
The clear history should work to your advantage. Further, the name change should not be a factor as long as it was not on your DL or in the citation as a former name. I know on my Texas DL history, there are no references to the former name that have ever been mentioned or that appear on the HX I can obtain online. It simply shows my original issue date back in the early-mid 80's and has the correct age, sex, eye color and other demographics (well, ok, the weight is off by a bunch, but they never asked me at renewal time if I was getting shoved back in the water by Greenpeace).
Traffic court/municipal court is more of a waste of time than anything, but even with a finding of guilt, you still tend to fare better by contesting the violation than to simply mail in a check.
