Name change was easy. Don't stress yourself out. I lived at the time in Indiana and they don't like us either there either... I went to a small town county judge in the middle of no where, basically where I lived... and it was only 5 minutes, didn't even go inside the court room... just stood outside and he had a clipboard with my court filing... asked me a few basic questions like am I being forced to, am I evading bills, and to confirm my name I want to change to... after all that was said and done he signed it and off I went. I had to go to social security before the DMV to make it legal. They tell you at the court house it is not a legal name change until it is changed with Social Security / DMV, the court gives me permission to change it, is all.
Just like other said in here, it is to ensure you are doing it to not defraud anyone. A sitting judge can not ethically deny your name change based on biased, no state will allow such a judge be that careless and risk a lawsuit and the media frenzy to give them bad publicity.
