As you went through your divorce, you kept one thought in mind. You wanted to resume your career, so you would have a better opportunity to support your children.
You may have begun your career using your maiden name. After marrying, you may have decided to use your spouse’s name or even hyphenate your name. Doing so meant you were able to maintain professional name recognition in your field.
Reasons for your name change should be valid
Pennsylvania courts want to ensure that name changes are not being requested for fraudulent purposes. For this reason, you will have to prove your name change request is for reasons other than fraud.
Request a Petition to Change Name from the Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas/Prothonotary in your county. As a part of this process, you may have to submit a certified copy of your birth certificate along with your official fingerprints.
A name change may help your career and family
You may have shared custody of your children. You need to be able to support them and yourself, which makes your name change necessary.
Before and during your marriage, you may have become known in your field. This may have required submitting professional articles under your original surname. Now that you are divorcing, you have the opportunity to resume using your own surname.
Post-divorce name change is not difficult
You may now be ready to officially resume your former surname. While your divorce was filed in the county where you used to live, you now live in a different county. Request the name change petition from the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas from your new county. You may have to attach an official copy of your divorce decree.
