Talk:Name change

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Does anyone have any information regarding name changes that involve only one name — i.e., no "last name"? I'm trying to research the subject now, but I'm coming up short. For example, what happens if "John Doe" wants to change his name to "John"? - Korpios 17:09, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Seems possible, see [1]. -- till we ☼☽ | Talk 20:48, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

British name restrictions

Here's an interesting question: If you can't get a name like "Prince" in England, what happens if someone like Prince Rogers Nelson (a.k.a. The Artist Formerly Known as Prince) moves to England? Can he get a driver's license, for example? Or are you allowed to move to England with a name like that but just can't adopt such a name once already there?

Cost?

Kind of a dumb question but....... Does it cost money to change your name? If so how much?

That depends on where you are and the exact circumstance. I have heard of someone in New York State, USA saying that it cost her $175 to get a legal name change through a court of law. See the article and I just said that there is no additional fee when getting a legal name change with naturalization. Sign your posts on talk pages next time, please. Otherwise, others cannot easily identify your posts.--Jusjih 07:02, 21 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I live in Wisconsin, myself: when I changed my name in 1994, the county courts usually charged $90 for filing the name-change papers. (Luckily, I got the fee waived when the court found me indigent.) I also had to run a legal notice in the local paper so that creditors could keep track of me; that cost $75, though the paper has probably raised its fee since then. ISNorden 23:32, 13 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Name change common in other religions

The article should mention that assuming a religious name is common--although not mandatory--in some pagan faiths. (especially Wicca and Asatru). ISNorden 00:11, 13 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is formal process really required in USA?

The article states "There are differences in specific requirements among U.S. states, but usually a court order is needed to change names (which would be applied for in a state court)." I've read that under common law, people in many states are allowed to change their names without legal formalities; they just start using the new name. Can anyone supply a good citation to support support or refute the idea that a court order is usually needed? Also, this passage overlooks the very common situation of women changing their names when they marry, without a court order. Gerry Ashton 00:57, 24 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Immigrants in the UK

Can immigrants in the UK (legal immigrants, that is) change their name under British law and keep their legal new name when they move to a different country or when they repatriate to their country of birth? Does a formal reason need to be given, or can anybody change their name for just personal reasons?

What did you do? 82.109.204.158 09:41, 19 May 2007 (UTC) me[reply]

Citing court cases

Some recent edits concerning a US constitutional right to common law name changes are difficult to understand for those who are not lawyers. If at all possible, these should be changed or supplemented with a link to an on-line copy of the decisions. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Gerry Ashton (talk • contribs) 22:29, 10 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Changing name for a company

I would like the article to include also something on this subject --YoavD 13:29, 10 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merge

Much of the content in legal name is better explained in this article, so I was tempted to redirect legal name to this article. But would it be better for the information to be on the broad-subject page than on the narrow-subject page? What do people think? —pfahlstrom 05:27, 10 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Merge and redirect is a good idea--Riferimento 14:27, 10 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but which should be redirected to which? I honestly don't know. —pfahlstrom 19:19, 10 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Keep them separate - I was researching what exactly constitutes legal name, and it had nothing to do with a name change (rather going by one's middle name).

Discussions of legal name and name change are significantly intertwined, but I think that continuing to expand legal name will grow the distinctions between the two topics sufficiently to justify keeping them separate. --SpeakKindly 04:09, 29 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Support for merge, they are basically the same thing. andrewrox424 ^Bleep 12:27, 30 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Strong support of merging. Rhythmnation2004 01:49, 12 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Opposition to Merge:

I think this page is very useful as its own entity, and the value that it has would be completely lost if it were embedded in another page. I found this page by searching for "name change" because I wanted to find specific information about this particular legal issue. If this page did not exist, I probably would not have been able to find the information at all. I think leaving this page as it is and developing its information will provide a significant benefit to the population who uses Wikipedia. Please consider this before moving forward with a merge. -Gabriel Cross (maybe soon to be Gabriel Owen Cross)December 6, 2007

Laws in Australia

I request info on name change laws and procedures in Australia, if anyone has it. 130.194.13.103 07:55, 27 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]