Too mild for the pit and all that.
I’ve always heard that legally changing your name is like 75 bucks. Not in California, it ain’t.
Court fee: 399
Fee to publish the legal notice: 230.
Is it worth it? I’m not sure yet. Ask me next year.
What are you changing it to?
Golden Tyger Girl?
Yeah I investigated changing my last name due to bad blood between my male progenitor and me. It’s prohibitively expensive. Thankfully I’m female so I just need to get married. Not that a marriage is cheaper than a wedding, but that’s a shared cost which includes a free name change.
I believe California recognizes a “common law” name change. This allows a name change simply by your using a new name. The problem, I suppose, is getting businesses and agencies to recognize the new name.
ETA: http://www.scribd.com/doc/26429971/Common-Law-Name-Change-Ruling-California
If you’re in California, just go down to the DMV and get a change of name form. There will be a fee to issue the new license. If you’re only changing the last name, they’ll assume you got married. They will not ask for proof.
Once you have the license with the new name, you can change your accounts and other paperwork. As long as you’re not making the name change in order to defraud, you’re legal.
I reverted to my birth name once I reached the point that I’d been divorced twice as long as I’d been married. That was decades ago. There were a lot of people I knew twittering about how it wasn’t legal and I’d have to go to court. They were wrong.
I changed my name in California and it didn’t cost me ten cents.
It ws 25 years ago, so maybe things have changed, but when I did it all I had to do was notify everyone everywhere and make sure I made no attempt of any kind to hide the fact of my former name. I just had to be thorough, and honest.
Easypie.
Changing your name is FREE.
Legally your name is whatever you choose to use as your name. No legal process need be involved. Pragmatically, you change a few things first, get some bills in your new name, etc, then take on drivers’ license / social security / passport among the last thing when you’ve got a mass of easier stuff in your new name.
EDIT: what Stoid just said.
Changing your name is free in states that recognize usage name changes. Not all states do. Looks like California does, though! Good news for the OP?
Funny that this topic comes up now. I was just thinking about it yesterday.
Years ago I was friends with someone who hadn’t seen her father since she was two. She had gotten a notice that he was legally changing her name (first and last) to something that would benefit him personally. She was an adult at the time. Is that even possible? I don’t know many details beyond that, and I’m pretty sure it never happened. FWIW, she was in MA and he was in FL.
Was she under 18?
No, she was close to 30.
Washington State is cheap 'n easy, done at your local neighborhood court for something like $60. I did mine due to an old name I’d had as a result of past parental adoptions/divorces.
Getting it updated across all of the arcane unlinked city/county/state institutional offices and boundaries is another nightmare altogether, only costing you your youth and soul.
I was waiting for the divorce to go through to change my name, are you telling me I can just waltz down to the social security office and change it back?
Already paid the fees and everything guys, but thanks. The hearing’s in December. I probably should’ve just done the DMV, common law route, but…
Sorry it’s such a hassle, Silver Tyger Girl. I’ve only done the name chance once, when I got married. It wasn’t expensive but it sure was a pain in the a$$! I worked with a woman who also had a name change due to her marriage and she paid an agency something like $300 to do the running around for her. It wasn’t that much of a hassle! And anyway, in my circumstance, it was kind of fun to practice writing the new name.
(it doesn’t take much to entertain me.)
Can’t you just email a mod?
Sorry it is such a pain, good luck!
I went through a legal name change in 1997. It was in Kentucky. The whole thing cost $35. I filled out my own form, paid the fee and went in front of a judge. Then I had to have my ID and Social Security card changed after that.
Funny thing: I changed it in February 1997, then got married in December 1997 and took my husband’s last name. 
We once had a girl come in who wanted to change her name. She said it was absolutely awful and she just hated it. I told her it couldn’t be that bad and asked her what it was. She said “Jenny Dumezaroq”. “Oh,” I said “that is pretty bad. So what do you want to change it to?”
She replied “Mary Dumezaroq”.
I know someone who went in front of a judge to change her last name.
Judge: “So you’re Americanizing it?”
Her: “No, I’m just going back to my maiden…”
Judge: “Looks to me like you’re Americanizing it.”
Her: “Their similar, but I just got div…”
Judge: “You’re Americanizing it.”
Her: “No, I’m…”
Judge: “You’re Americanizing it or I’m holding you in contempt of court.”
That’s so stupid! She could have changed it to Mary Jo Dumezaroq, Mary Catherine Dumezaroq, Mary Beth Dumezaroq, Mary Anne Dumezaroq…