How to Change Your Legal Name in New Jersey
You can change your legal name in New Jersey. You can change it through a regular court hearing, naturalization and through marriage. You can change a child’s legal name through marriage, adoption or "best interest" cases. Take care of pending issues tied to your name before you proceed..
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Instructions
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Make sure you’re clear to change your legal name in New Jersey. Take care of all legal issues if you’re due to go to court. Clear everything that you’re liable for taking care of under your old name.
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Go to the New Jersey court that handles name changes. Have three documents with you: a Civil Case Information Statement, Verified Complaint for Name Change and Certification and Order Fixing Date of Hearing. Pay the clerk the filing fee. Call the clerk in advance for the name change filing fee. Ask the clerk to see if you’re eligible to file for free if you’re unable to afford paying the fee.
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Announce the hearing date that the judge gives you in a local New Jersey paper. Use the newspaper the judge tells you to use. Call the newspaper, and make sure that they enter the notice per the judge’s orders. Receive their Affidavit of Publication after they announce your pending legal name change.
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Receive your Order Fixing Date of Hearing. Read the instructions that the judge sends you. Put the hearing date on your calendar in order to attend the hearing to change your legal name. Send notices to certain people and organizations, if the judge orders you to. Submit a Proof of Mailing to the court when you’re done mailing these documents.
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Attend your hearing. New Jersey requires you to be at this name-change hearing. Bring the Affidavit of Publican and Form of Judgment. Fill the parts you could fill, and let the judge do the rest. Answer the judge’s questions truthfully. Follow the hearing’s procedures. Then wait for the judge’s ruling authorizing you to use the new name. Have the paper publish your name change, and deliver copies of the ruling to the agencies that have your old name.
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Tips & Warnings
You can change your legal name in New Jersey as part of a divorce. Let your lawyer know that you’re interested in keeping your maiden name.
You can change your child’s legal name if it’s in their best interest. Have your spouse’s agreement, and make sure that you’re not doing this for fraudulent purposes. You could change another child’s name through adoption. If a child was born out of wedlock, you could also change their legal name. Show your marriage certificate to the New Jersey State Registrar’s office.
If you’re a legal alien ready to become a U.S. citizen, you can also change your legal name. Talk to your Immigration and naturalization officer about having your name changed as part of your naturalization ceremony. They have to work with the court to make this happen.
If you’re doing this for the wrong reasons, stop. The New Jersey judge reviewing your name change wants to make sure that you’re clean. Don’t use this to try to hide from legal, social, financial or other responsibility. These courts don’t want to be part of foul play. If you lie during the hearing, you may be charged with perjury.
