There are a variety of reasons that you might want to change your name.

You could be getting married.

Or divorced.

Or, you could be like former professional wrestler Jim Helwig, and decided that you truly are “The Ultimate Warrior” and you life won’t be complete unless you can sign your checks that way.

Whatever your reason for doing it, there is a process you have to go through to legally change your name. It can vary slightly by state or even county in some instances, but this is it in a nutshell…

First here’s what you CAN’T do…you can’t change your name to defraud creditors…you can’t change your name to that of a celebrity, then try to make money off of it…you can’t change your named to a swear word, and you can’t add numbers to your name (so if you were thinking of changing from leroy, to your much cooler online handle l3r0y - forget it…you can’t.)

You can actually get your named changed through “common usage” by picking a new name and consistently using it.

But if you’re going to keep it and make it stick when you get a credit card, you better go ahead and do it the legal way.

Call a Lawyer - yeah, they’re expensive, but it’s going to make this so much easier.

Determine your reason:

• Design - because you wanna.
• Marriage - because you’re getting married.
• Divorce - because you’re getting unmarried.

Pick Your New Name - You’ve probably already completed this step, but if not - now would be a good time.

File the proper paperwork - If you did step one, the lawyer will handle it for you, then send you a bill.  If you skipped that, you’ll need to go down to the county court house, ask what forms are necessary, fill them out, and pay the appropriate fees.

Change your Records - after you have succeed in becoming “Stanford Picklebritches” or whatever you want to call yourself, you need to make sure you let the DMV and the Social Security office know…as well as everyone else you owe money to or have an account with.  This part is going to be a bit of a pain…but if you don’t do it, you’ll probably end up regretting it later.