Changing My Name, Part 3 - The Finale

You can read part 1 and 2, here and here. We left off with me changing my name to Margaret Lane Lastname Husband's Lastname or was it Margaret Lane Husband's Lastname, legally I'm not really sure what my name was for a few weeks. My dad began the paperwork to change my name to Lane Lastname Husband's Lastname. If you are in this situation and thinking of dropping your first name be aware filing fees have been raised in most counties. It was around $500 to just file the paperwork. If you have to hire an attorney on top of that you are looking anywhere from $1500-$2500 to legally change your name.

After the paperwork was filed we waited for my court date to be set. I was a little nervous going to court to stand before a judge because I didn't know what to expect. As it turned out we just met in the judge's chambers, I didn't have to go stand in a court room. And we was a very nice judge. Apparently most of the name changes he does are for children after their parents get divorced, so he had a toy drawer which he insisted I take something from. Haha!

I stood before him, swore who I was, and we were out of there. Down to the clerks office to file the change. From there changing my name with social security and DMV was a breeze. I brought ALL of my paperwork with me, but once I showed the signed court order that was all they needed to see.

Finally after 5.5 months of marriage I had the name I wanted. Until I received paperwork from the state made out to Lane Lastname Lastname. Yes, apparently they thought I changed my name to have my lastname twice? I gave that paperwork to my dad for him to deal with and I haven't heard anything since. My driver's license, voter's ID, and Social Security card all say the same name! All thats left to do is change my passport.