Legal Question in Family Law in Wisconsin

Re: name change due to marriage

Wisconsin recognizes the common law right to change one's name through consistent and continuous use as long as the change is not effected for a fraudulent purpose. State v. Hansford, 219 Wis. 2d 226, 580 N.W.2d 171 (1998), 97-0885.

However, simply taking a different name will not change your official name for social security or driver's license or other license-type purposes. It can be confusing and frankly I do not recommend the practice.

One can officially Change names through the court per 786.36 of the Wis. Stats. The statute has the following limitation:

"No person engaged in the practice of any profession for which a license is required by the state may change his or her given name or his or her surname to any other given name or any other surname than that under which the person was originally licensed in the profession in this or any other state, in any instance in which the state board or commission for the particular profession, after a hearing, finds that practicing under the changed name operates to unfairly compete with another practitioner or misleads the public as to identity or otherwise results in detriment to the profession or the public. This prohibition against a change of name by a person engaged in the practice of any profession does not apply to any person legally qualified to teach in the public schools in this state, nor to a change of name resulting from marriage or divorce, nor to members of any profession for which there exists no state board or commission authorized to issue licenses or pass upon the qualifications of applicants or hear complaints respecting conduct of members of the profession."

This is a legal proceeding for which you obtain an order from a judge. The clerk of court has nothing to do the procedure except to file documents and issue certified copies. Usually a person would need the assistance of an attorney in order to comply with the statutory requirements for a name change.