Changing your name in California after a Divorce

A Guide to Divorce in California by a girl who just went through it all….

Obviously, I am talking about my own personal experience. I am not a lawyer nor a name-changing-professional. If you have questions, I recommend calling your local DMV/Social Security Office or doing some online research or even hiring a lawyer if your situation requires more notice.

---

First of all, we filed a Summary of Dissolution. In California you can file this document with the court as combined you have less than $6,000 in debt, $40,000 in assets, and separately do not have more than $40,000 in assets, as long as you do not own any land/property (not including a car), you do not have children, have been married less than five-years and neither party is asking to receive spousal support. 

I like to describe the SOD as a worksheet homework assignment. You find the paperwork online and fill out the forms, decide who gets what, both sign it, submit the paperwork to the courthouse and pay the fee. (FYI. you do not both need to be present to drop off the SOD paperwork.) On the SOD, you must notate that you want your previous/maiden name restored.

Anyway, enough about the SOD. In California, regardless of how/what you file you have at least a six-month waiting period before the final judgement is signed and dated and the divorce is final. If you hire a lawyer or go through mediation or the process is more complicated it could take longer, but it will never take less than six-months. Boo...

Once you have filed the paperwork, you cannot legally change your name if you changed it when you got married. This is because there is a legal open case file, so you have to wait until the judgement is finalize to change your name. As long as you notated that you wanted your previous name restored in your paperwork, you don’t have to jump through all of the hoops of a name change if you were changing it without marriage or divorce.

Once you get the final judgement, my divorce was final on a Friday and I received the signed paperwork the following Wednesday, you can then go to the Social Security Office, DMV, Bank, Post Office (for your passport), etc. 

Let me take a minute and say, if you plan on changing your name in the near future make your appointment at the DMV now. Yes, NOW. If you know the date that you are getting married make the appointment for maybe 3-5 weeks after you mail in your marriage license (to account for the time it takes for the court to receive it, sign it and send it back to you), if you are getting divorced, I recommend making an appointment for about a week or two after the date the divorce will be final. All of this so you don’t have to wait three hours at the dreaded DMV.

Here is what you need to change your name in California after the big D-Word:

First thing is first, make a copy of your Summary of Dissolution. You have to mail in the original copy to update your passport and you need to show a copy to update your name on some of your accounts.

Social Security Office - Summary of Dissolution, Application, picture ID (I had my old passport, but a DL will do), there is no cost to change your name

DMV - Summary of Dissolution, DMV paperwork - they give it to you there, it is something to do while you wait and it costs $27.00

(note: I thought I needed to have my updated social security card, and I didn’t, they only asked me for my SOD, and I had to take a new picture)

Post Office for your Passport - Summary of Dissolution, passport application, 2 new passport photos, $110 check (it has to be a check), your old passport

(note: you have to mail all of this in along with the original SOD)

Bank of America - Summary of Dissolution and your old photo ID (to prove you used to be you :-))

Chase Credit Card - All I had to do was call and they changed my name over the phone, but I think they did that because the account was open in my maiden name, so it was already on file. The card actually was delivered in only a couple of days!

Car/Renters Insurance - I emailed my contact for these things to update it, he didn’t ask me for any paperwork, only if I had changed my information legally with the SSO and the DMV.

Medical/Health Insurance - Ask your work, I needed to provide a copy of my Summary of Dissolution and then HR took over and changed my name on all of my accounts.

PG&E - I called and they asked me what I wanted to change my name to.

Apartment Lease - I called and they updated my information. If I renew my lease they will update it according to my new name.

Southwest Rapid Rewards - You have to email CRRRDox@wnco.com a copy of your Summary of Dissolution and make sure to include your rapid rewards account number and your old and new name; this can take up to 30 days. If you are planning a trip, make sure you will have a photo ID with the name on your ticket to show at security.

Comcast - I called and they told me that they require me to physically go to a service center with my Summary of Dissolution. I asked if I could just cancel my account and start a new account, they told me that would work...how does that make sense? Anyway, I did a quick google search and found these instructions. This seemed to have worked.

AAA - I have to go into the office with my SOD to change it, or you can fax it (p.s. who has a fax machine anymore these days??)

Hmmm...I can’t think of anything else - besides updating all of your email addresses and autofills in your browser and all of the sites you log into daily. 

Really Southwest, Comcast & AAA? You guys need to take yourselves a little less seriously. It makes me crazy that I had to jump through a million hoops for some of these companies to change my name when I didn’t need anything special to sign up for the service. Oh well..

What I am trying to say is, you can get most of this done in a single day! As long as you start early, even if you don’t have an appointment you can take care of it all in a single morning. If you don’t have an appointment, I recommend that you go in with the mindset that you are going to have to wait. It can be a bit daunting to know that you have to go through all of this after you went through everything else.

Best of luck to you and I hope this helped. I know that there are other states that require a longer waiting period, which I can’t even imagine. Again, this is all my own personal experience, I recommend doing some extra research through your local Social Security Office and DMV.

I would now like to introduce my old self to your old self ;-)

--- update 3/10 - AAA does NOT require you to go to an office to change your name. The initial person i spoke with probably just didn't want to help me. All can be taken care of on the phone.
a side note - you can also update your address for your car registration if you have AAA membership.