Sticky Name Change Questions

[ZombieDog]

I want to get my name changed post haste but I'm fouled up by the fact that I live in Oklahoma and was divorced last year in Florida.  I never got my divorce records from the court and I need them because my name was to legally go back to my maiden name.  So my IDs all say my married name though I imagine legally my last name is now my maiden name.  So do I need to go and get all of my ID names changed to my maiden name again before I apply for a name change to get my male name?

I'm so confused.

[DriftingCrow]

Without looking at your actual divorce papers no one on this site is in a position to tell you if your name actually reverted back to your maiden name or not (sometimes if people do divorces pro-se they don't check off all the correct boxes and don't actually get their surname reverted to their maiden name). However, I don't think you'd need to go through the steps of changing all your IDs back to your maiden name, and then over to your male name. But, you may need a copy of the divorce papers showing that your name was actually reverted to your maiden name when you go to the hearing for your (male) name change.

If you used a FL divorce lawyer, he/she should be able to send you copies of the file. If not, you'd need to request them from the court.

Good luck.

[Jessica Merriman]

Without looking at your actual divorce papers no one on this site is in a position to tell you if your name actually reverted back to your maiden name or not (sometimes if people do divorces pro-se they don't check off all the correct boxes and don't actually get their surname reverted to their maiden name). However, I don't think you'd need to go through the steps of changing all your IDs back to your maiden name, and then over to your male name. But, you may need a copy of the divorce papers showing that your name was actually reverted to your maiden name when you go to the hearing for your (male) name change.

If you used a FL divorce lawyer, he/she should be able to send you copies of the file. If not, you'd need to request them from the court.

Good luck.

I live in Oklahoma also. Good advice above from LH. Just pray you don't get Judge Graves in OKC. Not trans friendly at all and denies everything related to LGBT individuals.

[tgchar21]

If you're worried about an unfriendly judge, and you don't have anything against you that a judge has a legitimate reason to deny your name change for (e.g. a criminal history, large debts), you might try giving an "alternate" reason and not mention that you're trans. A back-door reason like "I don't like my present name" or "I think the chosen name better fits my personality" is perfectly acceptable if you don't have any of the aforementioned strikes against you (you could even say if true that you've been using the name you're changing to informally for awhile and want to make it legal).