Welcome to the delightful process of completing a legal name change and all the quirky side-quests that result from this decision. In this post, I’m writing about what happens next and information on how/who to notify once the legal name change is in effect.
For information on my journey to the legal name change and earlier notifications to state and federal entities, check out my posts below.
Phase 3 took some time as I did not want to write about it until I’d finished it myself.
This turned out to be a good decision. One of the agencies I’ll discuss below took over 6 months to correct my records. Technically, it took two years from time of initial notification to time that the corrections were properly made.
Don’t we love the slow grinding wheels of progress aka paper and pen, dinosaur slow computers, inarticulate databases, and backwards evolution? I don’t…
Anyway, I’ll provide a list below for commonly needed or overlooked places that you must notify of your name change.
Note, I updated my passport after the following notifications were completed. I did not have impending travel to worry about at the time and I was waiting for the X (nonbinary) option to come through. Even after paying extra for expedited shipping and processing, I received my passport with mere days to spare. I would highly recommend completing passport updates at least 3 months before you need to travel.
Notify Personal and Business Relationships
The following is an extensive, but not 100% inclusive list of organizations and people to notify of your name change once your state and federal updates have been completed.
- Employer
- Human Resources
- Work Colleagues
- Financial Institutions
- Banks
- Creditors
- Credit Cards
- Investment companies/accounts
- Credit Report Organizations
- Insurance Providers
- Health Insurance
- Renters/House Insurance
- Car Insurance
- State Motor Vehicle Records
- Title
- Registration
- Inspection (as applicable)
- Schools (Degrees & Transcripts)
- Utility Companies
- Phone Provider
- Internet/cable
- Electricity/Gas
- Water/Sewer
- Landlord
- Health Care Providers
- Friends/Family
- Professional Organizations
- Professional Memberships
- Personal Legal documents (wills, marriage certificate, etc.)
- Courts
- Etc.
Financial Institutions
For the most part, financial institutions are not difficult to navigate when providing notification of your name change. They will require submission of documents, such as copies of your new social security card, your new driver’s license, and certified Final Judgement document.
Each institution has different requirements so be sure to call ahead and verify the correct process for each bank, credit card company, investment institution, loan provider, mortgage holder, and anywhere you have debt, savings and investments.
Employer
In order to ensure that your pay, health insurance, and other benefits are not impacted, it is important to submit notification of your legal name change to your employer’s Human Resources department. If you call, they will specify what documents they require. This will impact your taxes and should be done as soon as possible after you’ve completed your notification of state/government entities since you will most likely need to send copies of your social security card, your drivers license, and even your signed and sealed Court Order of legal name change.
Notifying your HR may in effect translate into notification of your health insurance company, benefits and retirement accounts that are linked to your employer. My health insurance did the curious thing of making my new name a dependent under my old name. Can you say “split file snafu”? What a clusterfuck that was to untangle!
ICYW, this was resolved when they ported over my records under the new name and closed out the old one.
Credit Report Bureaus (CRB)
Credit Report Bureaus (CRB) are their own special breed. When I provided notification and submitted supporting documents and evidence, this resulted in instances where my new name was not associated with the financial history of my old name. Thus my credit score went straight into the toilet.
Apparently, the big 3 CRBs (Transunion, Equifax, and Experian) do not categorize people’s credit history by their social security number. Instead, they track credit history and information by the individuals’ names as reported. This can result in instances of “split files” where you have numerous profiles under each of your names (including instances of misspelling or maiden/marriage names).
Ideally, your personal information on the report should indicate all your names as your credit vendors, lenders and banks report them. So if you report your credit card with first and last name only, your mortgage with a middle initial, and your bank with your full middle name, all these iterations should be under that section of the personal information corresponding to your name and/or under the AKAs.
When in doubt, pull your credit report for all credit reporting organizations and compare your records for each. If you find missing information, inaccurate information, or any other errors, you can submit a request to correct the information. You will be asked for supporting documentation to verify your identity and any prior name variations conducted via name change.
This is what took me the better part of two years to resolve. In a separate post, I’ll provide my best approximation of the process as per my individual experience.
Vehicle Related Records
This became a recent non-issue, but something to keep in mind. When you register your vehicle with your state either for annual renewal, or do so after moving to a new place, ensure that your title is either issued in your new name OR make sure to bring one of the original signed court orders of name change. They will not process anything if the name on the title and the name on the id do not match (due to name change) and you forget the signed & original Court Order.
Car Insurance
You may be required to complete this notification before requesting your new driver’s license. In any event, ensure that your policy(ies) are updated with your name change and submit whatever identifying documents they require to do so.
The Rest
On a personal front, provide updates and notifications as you see fit. I had the delightful experience of informing my immediate family of the change, only for them to still address me by my dead name in mixed company so they would not have to explain the ins and outs of the situation.
Whatever. I just keep correcting as I go.
My sibling is the only one in my family who easily pivoted to my name and addresses me properly. It’s such a rush in a heartwarming manner to hear my name said without fanfare or correction.
Friends likewise had an easy adaptation. I had, for the most part, been going by my name for the past five years, consequently, folks I kept in close contact with were well aware of my name and had been using it all along.
The most amusing response has been from church goers, who awkwardly stepped into a slew of cow pies while trying to ask me if I was doing gender reassignment surgeries. I surely did delight in telling them it was none of their holy business.
Bless their sweet lil’ hearts.
DO. FEEL. BE. 
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