Comment on Does changing your last name make sense when you’re not that name?
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
What do you mean, “make sense”?
You can change your name to whatever you want. Imagine if your last name were Epstein, or Trump. No one would question your motivation.
It doesn’t even need to be a serious reason, some people change their name to silly things: listverse.com/…/10-bizarre-legal-name-changes/
I don’t much like my first name, but it’s the name my mom gave me, and I would never change it because of that. My mom said she gave her kids less common names because everyone on her side of the family was named biblical names, like John, Mary, and Paul. And, she wasn’t religious, so she picked names she liked that were specifically not biblical.
bigbangdangler@reddthat.com 6 hours ago
This is a bit of an oversimplification.
If in the US, you can generally change your name at whim, usually after a petition and fee. But it depends on your state. Some states require a hearing to do a name change. Some require a publication, and some will only allow the change after a waiting period.
All states will generally deny name change requests which are deemed to be fraudulent (details of that depend on state), to avoid debt, or to be harmful/hateful to others. Sometimes the definitions of these terms is not terribly clear, in which case the state can simply deny it with vague reasoning.