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Divorce

Can I change back to my maiden name before the divorce is final?

Generally, a person can apply to change his/her name at any time by filing a name change petition in civil court and getting an order from a judge allowing the change - then, that order can be taken to the DMV, banks, etc. to change his/her name. However, one of the benefits to changing a name through a divorce decree is that, in general, a person does not have to go through the name change petitioning process but rather can use the divorce decree to change his/her name. However, I cannot specifically speak to the laws in your state – some states have laws that allow a married woman to resume her maiden name at any time. I don’t know about STATE. If you want to write back with the county in which you live, we can try to do some Internet research for you to see if we can find any more information related to this. Alternatively, you may want to contact an STATE lawyer to see what your state’s laws are regarding this. Here is a link to lawyers:LINK

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