Legal Question in Family Law in California

I currently have a divorce pending in California. The petition included reverting back to my maiden name. Now, I am considering taking a different last name than either my current/married name or my former/maiden name. (It's complicated due to my relationships with my child, his father, and my birth father.)

I know that changing to a completely different last name would require a separate process for a legal name change; and I know that if I do not change to my maiden name as part of the divorce decree, I could do it later by filing an ex-parte application to revert to my former name.

I don't want to hold up finalizing the divorce while I decide about my name, and I don't want to have to go through changing all my documents twice (back to maiden name, and then possibly again to a different name).

So should I file an amended divorce petition to change it so I'm not requesting to revert to my maiden name at the time the divorce is finalized, keeping my married name for the time being? (How legally binding is the name change that's part of the divorce petition?)

Or can I finish the divorce as-is and just not process the paperwork to change my ID to my maiden name, and then file for a legal name change to the completely different name if I decide to do so? In that case, I'm not sure what I would put on the legal name change application as my "current" name - the married name, which the divorce would say was changed but was still on my ID, or the maiden name, which I may end up not wanting to use at all, but which the divorce decree would say is my new legal name.

Sorry if this seems convoluted. I just hadn't considered using a completely different name when the divorce was filed, and now I'm concerned about how the different legal processes would affect each other and complicated getting IDs changed, dealing with plane tickets, etc.

Thank you for any help!


Asked on 2/16/10, 5:37 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

It is not all that complicated. Really quite simple. If you get your divorce judgment by having judgment entered on a stipulated marital settlment agreement without a hearing or trial, you just leave out the name change in the MSA and the judgment papers. If it isn't in the jugment, the name doesn't change. If you have to go to trial on the case, just make sure that you tell the judge on the record that you withdraw your request for the name change, and then when the judgment forms are prepared, remind whomever draws them up for submission to the court that the name change was withdrawn.

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Answered on 2/21/10, 6:16 pm


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