I figure there may be a few other folks out there with questions other than me, so feel free to jump in with them.
Mrs. WeHaveCookies and I will be lining up to be legally married later this month. She still uses her ex-husband’s last name, and neither of us is particularly attached to my last name. The most attractive option, we have both decided, is to change both of our current last names to something new. We are identifiable as a family that way (something that is important to us) while allowing us to bypass having to figure out which one of us will pretend to be the cultural “groom” (which we could care less about).
Thankfully there have been many straight couples who have already trail-blazed in this area, with the man taking the woman’s last name, or both changing their last names to a hyphenated combination or just something new, like we want to do.
The small amount of sampling I’ve done across a few different states indicates that any fees associated with changing one’s name ($350 or so here in California) are waived in the case of marriage, for at least one if not both parties. I am still looking for a cite confirming that both parties can change for free in the event of a legal marriage in California…
So my questions are: Will we both be able to change our names without forking over as much as $700 to do so? Will we have fill out the paperwork and finish the process prior to results of the pending November ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage?
The social/political activist in me wants (for myself and everyone else in our position) to clog the system with as much paperwork as possible while our marriages are legal, to prime the pump for another slew of appeals should things not go our way in November, but I’m hoping that this is something that can be procedurally completed over the next few months that cannot be wiped away regardless of how things go in November.
If we do this and the ballot initiative passes, and we somehow get a $700 retroactive bill in December, I am going to be 10 different shades of pissed the f*ck off.
IANAL, but it’s looking like a “traditional” marriage where one person takes the other person’s name is pretty simple - go to the Social Security Administration to change your name there, then off to the DMV to pay a token fee to have your drivers license changed.
In cases like yours, where both people are taking a different name, the fee waivers and simplicity don’t exist - marriage or not, both of you will have to go through the whole magilla of court filings, forms and several weeks, most of which will be just waiting for the name change to bubble its way through the court system. And then you still have to g to the SSA and DMV. And to the bank, insurance company, etc…
FWIW, my partner and I are keeping our names. We thought briefly of hyphenating, but it would be a coin flip to pick which one goes first, and either arrangement is a bit ungainly.
According to this website, California passed a law, AB 102, which requires marriage licenses to permit either or both parties to change their names, but this law is not effective until January 1, 2009.
I don’t know how this will be reflected on the revised marriage licenses for the court decision permitting same sex marriage.
Perhaps when the new forms come out, they will have the answer.
So the current sate of California regulations don’t give the bride a “free name change” card, they give her a “free change of name to your husband’s last name, or a hyphenated combination of that and your maiden name” card?
On my first read through that, it sounds like you’d be required to have a marriage license to change a name.
It’s the other way around - on January 1, 2009, the marriage license and domestic partnership forms must contain spaces for either party to change their name. The Dept of Public Health must also publish brochures explaining the options about name changes related to marriage or domestic partnership.
Without diving too deeply into the bill itself, this was introduced in 2007 to make the mechanical process of a name change at marriage or domestic partnership easier and uniform state-wide, and is not directly related to same-sex marriages.
Interesting. So they’re making room on various forms to make name changes easier, but not necessarily cheaper or free for both parties of marriages/domestic partnerships.
We moved to California last spring, and have had registering as domestic partners on our to-do list since then, but since it was not required for domestic partner benefits from my employer (we just had to sign an affidavit that we met certian cohabitational criteria) it has not been a huge priority. Since we’d rather be legally married anyway, we basically shelved the domestic partnership angle once the court’s decision came down.
I just realized what a idiot I was for having the word “Legal” in my OP title. I’m not looking for “legal advice”, but just some cites like the ones that have been graciously provided above. I’ve been waiting for my county clerk’s office to return my call for a few days now, to both ask these sorts of questions and actually book a time slot for our marriage to be performed. I’m hoping that their backlog is due to a queer prenuptial stampede.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re planning on getting your name changed with Social Security or a passport in your new name, the Federal Government refuses to recognize name changes after Lesbian or Gay marriages because of the Defense of Marriage Act.
When hubby and I got married here in Canada, I changed my name to his - simple as anything… walked into the Ministry of Transportation, came out a new person… and since I’m a dual citizen, got a Canadian passport in my new name…
Then read stories online about people not being able to get U.S. passports in their married names… So… I now have two passports - my Canadian one has one name, my American one has another…
So far it hasn’t been a problem, but I just have to remember who I am depending what country I’m entering. :smack:
Oh, and “Congratulations, by the way!”
We both already have passports, so we’d be filing paperwork with them to just change our names on them, not sure how that might effect things.
I’m STILL waiting to talk to the Santa Clara County Clerk to ask them these questions and schedule the marriage ceremony. I suppose I should make a call to Social Security and the Passport Services Office sooner than later and see if the bullshit in that linked story still applies.
