How do you change your name?

[travelbug]

I've used Lynne as my name forever. My legal name is Lynette.

Half my stuff is in Lynne (my pay, tax, credit cards, voting details, half bank accounts), half in Lynette (deeds to houses, passport, license, half bank accounts). Very messy.

I just booked a cruise and the agent put Lynne even though I gfilled in the booking for with Lynette. She has Lynnette on the receipt but the cruise line has Lynne. But my Email addy is Lynne and I sign Lynne.
I've Emailed so it will be sorted but I'm sick of it.
Now that my passport is nearly full I think it's a good time to do it.
Where do I start? and once it's changed do I just change the passport then I can change everything else with that as ID?

Thanks. I have been meaning to do this for years but put it in the too hard basket.

 

[Kenster]

Hi Travelbug,

You can legally change your name through the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (part of the Justice Department).

Once having the Certificate of Change of Name, you can use it to apply new passport and the like.

If you are a resident of NSW, application form is here:
http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/changeName/applicationForm.htm

 

[RumpledElf]

We're looking into getting the other half's surname changed to match everyone else in the house (believe me, the fact that the offspring has *my* surname is a sticking point with the inlaws).

It's quite cheap too, in SA its around the $200 mark, give or take. Updating all your paperwork? Priceless

 

[jaycee]

you're sick of that ?

all my paperwork & id's ae spread out over 4 x different spellings of my first name. Last time I got a personal loan the bank got confused, (300k over 2 mtges previously and they didn't bat an eyelid) and told me we needed to get it sorted out now, which is the official one, I sid you tell me, passport says this, ato says that, bank says this...
I had to show id to a policeman after giving my name ad he saw the drivers license having a different first name than what I gave him-as he ws having a conversaton with me about the situation we witnessed, then he asked for some id and saw my name on my driver's license was different and asked if I gave him a false name, when I tried to explain he asked if I udnerstood the severity of giving a false name to a police officer (?!), I almost laughed, and explained again going through the many peices of id with both names...eventually he got it that i was just the witness , not perpetrator.

I've thought about aligning it all, but where to start, and is it all worth it, that was 20 years ago and

 

[Petal]

We're looking into getting the other half's surname changed to match everyone else in the house (believe me, the fact that the offspring has *my* surname is a sticking point with the inlaws).

It's quite cheap too, in SA its around the $200 mark, give or take. Updating all your paperwork? Priceless

Well the in laws are really going to be thrilled hubby is changing his name to yours

 

[Perp]

We're looking into getting the other half's surname changed to match everyone else in the house

Sorry, tempted to digress with an interesting family history story I've dug up: approx 1855, George Richards leaves his wife Ellen in rural Victoria with a bunch of kids. A couple of years later, Ellen realises he's not coming back and gets a new man, James Everett. James Everett moves in with Ellen, and they have children, despite not ever legally marrying (because she couldn't find George to divorce him) - hugely scandalous in those days! As Ellen lived to a ripe old age, I was fortunate to interview elderly relatives who knew Ellen. The hilarious part of the story is that when James Everett moved in with Ellen, he became known as George Richards around town, "for propriety"! I love the idea that if you just call him George Richards, it's like nobody will notice that it's not the same man.... ROTFLOL I'm just imagining her turning up at church with the new man, and somebody asking who he is, and her answering "why it's my husband George Richards of course"... Apparently everybody in town had the good grace to run with that.

Now, back to the topic at hand, I've never felt that I'm a "Tracey", and have considered changing my first name a number of times over the years. Has anybody done this? I've spoken to my parents, and it doesn't bother them, which was one of my concerns.

Now my concerns are primarily practical - should I do it, or leave it? How did those closest to you adapt? How does it feel to wear a new first name? If I elect to do it, should I leave my name the same legally and just ask people to call me something different, or is that more complicated than changing everything legally and having the informal and formal "matching"?

 

[Petal]

Hi Tracey,

If I was going to change my christian name I would do it legally and then ask everyone to start calling you by that name. It will take people a while to get used to it (and some may never get used to it) but over time you will become that person. The reason I would do it legally is because I think it makes it less complicated in the future if everything matches up.

So what are you going to call yourself?? I have always like the name Alice. Don't know why but I just do.

Please don't call yourself Rebekah or Taylah or Chantriese

 

[Plodder]

Wow ozperp what a great story! Maybe there's a lesson on tolerance there...

Names are like anything else, some people find them defining and others are pretty easy going about it. I know someone who had some horrific defining moments who changed their christian name. This was like drawing a line in the sand kind of wiping their history and giving them a new place to start their life over. It seems to work well if you've attached a negative connotation to it and changing it helps you move on.
I have my maiden name and married names being evenly distributed between my credit cards and various forms of ID and you really have to be on the ball when you show someone your details to put the right ones together and also when you sign for something.
I guess it comes down to calling yourself what you feel comfortable with and let everyone else know that's your decision. Most people wouldn't care either way.

 

[lizzie]

i think our desire to be known by certain names changes as we get older.

i used to be lizzie as a little girl, liz as a teenager but now i like elizabeth. when i'm a grandmother i intend to be called libby. so foruntately i have one of those names that can be varied as required (won't touch beth, liza, betty, lillbet etc).

why does everyone in the household have to have the same name? we don't and although husband hates being called mr (my last name) i doesn't bother me if i get the mrs (his last name) occasionally.

 

[Nards]

When I was 3 I had my name changed by deed poll (whatever that means! ie legally), but only by one letter! When I was born, my parents named me NARDIA, and for 3 years that was my name, but then apparently my dad said he has always really dislikd the R, and had wanted it spelt NADIA - he'd just not really thought to mention it to mum, who filled the peperwork..So they had it changed.

Now, on my original birth certificate there is a big stamp with the name change documented and a stapled reciept - all of which form the legal document.

The biggest drawback with changing your name is the filling in of paperwork - every time you fill in a legal document it wants to know your aliases and "if you have been know by any other name" - so even though I was only 3 at the time, and only ONE letter, I have to fill this section in, along with the maiden name section. You also have to provide the legal docs supporting the change of name, and my poor old birth cert. is starting to look very thin and ragged (I'm sure I could get a legal copy though)..

I feel very mysterious having an alias, hehe But I do prefer NADIA to NARDIA....fortunately!

Nadia

 

[wylie]

My brother changed his name when he was in his 20s. He was gone from our lives for about ten years and when he came back in his late 20s, he wanted us all to call him something different. It was very, very hard to do, and when we got it wrong, he got really peeved. I now call him by his new name, but I reckon it took at least ten years to feel comfortable do so. Mum took a lot longer to doing so. I only see him about once a year, so it is not a big issue for me.

He also changed his surname, which really did hurt my parents at the time, but he is such a "black sheep" with so many "issues" from his past that the name change was just one of many problems that they had to (and still have to) deal with regarding this brother.

His reason for changing his name was because of his "horrific" childhood. There were three of us in three years, and his "horrific" childhood is totally in his head, because my other brother and I had the same childhood and it was normal. Unfortunately, when somebody is delusional, pointing out the bleeding obvious is no help .

One of his peeves from his "horrific" childhood was that he was made to wear hair oil when he started high school (pretty normal in 1970 but about to change forever) and my mother (how DARE she) gave him WHITE BREAD sandwiches when he would have preferred wholemeal. How horrific .

 

[travelbug]

Thanks everyone. I'll certainly get started.
I went from a surname that no one could spell or pronounce to one I thought no-one would get wrong but I still get called the wrong name.

Wasn't there a movie with Richard Gere about a woman who's husband went away to war. Richard Gere came back and she said he was THE husband?
Mind you I would have said he was my husband too if I could get away with it.

I have a friend who has always been called by her middle name. I only found out when she had her first child and her name was on the bed.

Names are funny things. It can define you to a degree.
Being a teacher makes it difficult when naming your own children.

I would never call a child Luke or Thomas But that's a whole new topic.

 

[RumpledElf]

why does everyone in the household have to have the same name? we don't and although husband hates being called mr (my last name) i doesn't bother me if i get the mrs (his last name) occasionally.

He hates his surname. Since I'm the talker in this household he gets called Mr Mylastname more often than not by random callers. Matching the rest of us is just the official excuse for a namechange - it carries more weight on the name change form.

Well the in laws are really going to be thrilled hubby is changing his name to yours

Hah, his mother remarried and enthusiastically got rid of the surname. She was once sitting there lamenting on how she should have known her ex husband would be awful, because she married a Hislastname. This was just after berating us for not being married. We had to pull her up on that one.

His sister also changed her name on getting married and was very very happy to be rid of the name. His father's new wife hasn't taken the surname but their daughters have, they'll probably get rid of it ASAP when they're older too

Its one of those generically bad names that you don't want to have if you don't have to. Good ammo for being teased at school, too. My surname is boring and innoffensive, a shade less common than Smith but not by much.

 

[wylie]

Wasn't there a movie with Richard Gere about a woman who's husband went away to war. Richard Gere came back and she said he was THE husband? Mind you I would have said he was my husband too if I could get away with it.

The night I met my husband I thought he looked like Richard Gere..... but I had had a few drinks.

 

[Olly]

You may not have to do anything legally depending what paperwork you already have and what paperwork you actually want changed. You can change your name or call yourself whatever you like as long as it's not for devious or fraudulent reasons. It's only if you want legal docs in the new name it has to be registered.
See here - http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/changeName/changeName.htm

Or this site might be helpful -
http://www.changename.com.au/page/Home

 

[Perp]

So what are you going to call yourself?? I have always like the name Alice. Don't know why but I just do.

Please don't call yourself Rebekah or Taylah or Chantriese

Promise I won't use any of those! I haven't given it an awful lot of thought, but I think I may feel comfortable as Kate (officially Katherine).

Names are funny things. It can define you to a degree.

Yes. I've not had any negative experiences; I just have a perception of "Traceys" that doesn't match my own sense of who I am.

Or this site might be helpful -
http://www.changename.com.au/page/Home

Thanks, Olly, and everybody for their thoughts.

 

[Francine]

name change

when you do a name change it can be a bit of an inconvenience as then every time there is anything legal you have to remember to also bring along the the name change document. it just means when anything legal happens besides all other papers you need to bring or photocopy or have photocopied and certified copies of, it adds anther one when there is usually enough to chase up. i've found this a real inconvenience but you might not.

francine.

 

[Lamingtons]

This thread just confirms why I did not change my last name when I recently got married.
My husband says he sometimes feels a little sad but he snaps out of it after 5 mins. My pork chop in me will have his last name no double barrels here.

 

[travelbug]

when you do a name change it can be a bit of an inconvenience as then every time there is anything legal you have to remember to also bring along the the name change document. it just means when anything legal happens besides all other papers you need to bring or photocopy or have photocopied and certified copies of, it adds anther one when there is usually enough to chase up. i've found this a real inconvenience but you might not.

francine.

On the site you have a choice to get your birth certificate changed or get the change of name certificate. If you don't get the name changed on your birth certificate then you need to carry both.

 

[Swany]

Speaking of names,
I met a older lady in the 70's who maiden name was Lilly Rose....after she was married her new name was Lilly Lilly