Ohio Name Change: Maiden to Middle

Hey Kasia!

When it comes to legal situations, I think it’s always best to contact your county clerk's office to get the exact and correct information that you need. It can be difficult to get the correct advice from anecdotal experience as the laws differ so much from state to state.

I live in Ohio and when we got married I wasn't taking his full hyphenated name so I had to do it through the court house. He also dropped the hyphenated part that I wasn't taking so we got to do it together which was nice. Not sure about moving the maiden to middle name but if you need to do it in the court house it's really not that bad. I filled out all the forms online. They put a notice in the paper and your court date is 30 days after that. We were in a little court room with 4 other people changing their names and the judge just went through us one by one and asked us what our new name was going to be and why we decided to change it.

I also want to make my maiden name my middle name, but my second middle name! I'm so worried about what the process will be like for doing this though. Have you had any luck with this yet?

That's a good question! I've heard that it was as simple as writing what you want your name to be on the legal documents and then it's done. But that always seemed too good to be true, in my opinion. Definitely a question for the clerks.

My FH's last name is hyphenated, but I want to hyphenate my maiden name with his first last name (the one he uses primarily)...and now. everything sounds so complicated LOL. Hopefully, the process isn't so bad in GA.

My situation is a little different, but I am changing my full legal name (have always gone by my middle name so i'm dropping first name, making middle name my first name, making maiden my middle, and new last name).

I have to go file a legal name change request, submit a background check, and go to probate court after the wedding to explain why I want the name change.

My good friend is an attorney and part of her wedding gift to me is taking care of this- otherwise I would be lost!

I'm wondering what hoops I have to jump through to get my original full name back, but with his last name in place. I was born with two middle names (Lee Elizabeth) and for the longest my identifiers (social security, drivers license and birth certificate) had my full name.

As years went on, I lost my birth certificate and when I went to request a new birth certificate they sent me with only using my second middle name. Then unfortunately years after that I lost my wallet and needed a new drivers' license and when I went to get a new one the lady "had" to use just my second middle name. Even though the system used to say otherwise. UGH! I never asked to drop the first middle name (Lee) or anything, so I'm not sure what happened, but now all my identifications are all just 3 names and not the 4 I was born with. It might sound silly, but I feel naked not seeing my first middle name.

When I requested our marriage certificate I made sure to add them both and even signed with my norm L.E. in between my first and last name.. When I went to pick up our marriage certificate and of course it has just the 3 as well. So when I get my name changed in Aug. I want to try and get all 4 back on my ID's but using his last name. (we eloped on new years day and our wedding isn't till august and since things are kept hush i'm waiting to change my last name; just in case you were wondering about the length of time since in Ohio marriage license is only good for 60 days to have your ceremony)

I have tried to google how to get things straight but haven't seemed to find much, but basically what your thinking you need to do. Fill a form, gather your supporting documents (if my birth certificate is changed, how can i prove other wise?!?!) and then pay a fee and head to court. Seems like a lot for a change I never asked for in the first place. Just give me my real full name back.