And Kristen has the actually useful information! I'm sure if you notify the school of a name change, it'll go on the diploma.

I have knowledge! And yes, once I had the official paperwork, I just marched down to the Registrar's office and everything got changed to my new name.

ETA: The only glitch was SS. I was a bit of a slacker and didn't do that for, like, three or four years. So every year or so I'd get nasty letters from them and the IRS about using the wrong SSN.

Do you know why they make you publish it?

cereal: you get a new SSN? That will be a bitch to remember.

It's to ensure that you're not doing it to defraud, yadda, yadda, yadda. Usually you publish in some tiny local paper that no one reads. I think we published in some Brooklyn paper I'd never heard of before.

ETA: No, you keep the same SSN. They just update the record to reflect your new legal name. You do get a new SS card but with the same number.

Usually you publish in some tiny local paper that no one reads.

Heh. Wonder if the Berea College newspaper would count. (Not really.)

You do get a new SS card but with the same number.

Thanks, that clears it up.

Seriously, Kristen, thank you so much. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but I think I want to do it before I graduate; start fresh, in a way. Your information helps a lot.

SA, it sounds weird, but you may want to check some of the wedding sites -- they usually have state-by-state lists of what's required to change your name. (Most places make it ridiculously easier for the newly-married, but they'll still have non-newlywed info for people who want to change names later or in unusual ways.)

I don't use the name on my birth certificate, but have never done anything formal, and at this point, the birth cert is the only place where that name is -- my SS card, passport, etc., all have the name I actually use. The passport was the most recent time I had to show the birth cert, I think, and I just asked if it could say Jesse.

My mother recently had trouble getting her drivers license renewed, because NJ has this new system where you need to bring in about four forms of ID, and the name on her old drivers license didn't match the name on her passport. The difference was that one of them had her middle initial, and the other didn't. They made her go home and get her birth certificate to show where that middle initial came from. (Although now I'm wondering -- her birth certificate had her maiden name on it. So they wouldn't accept "Firstname Lastname" and "Firstname M. Lastname" as being the same person, but they would if they also had a document with "Firstname Middlename Maidenname." Weird.)

No problem! I'm glad to help.

I had wanted to do it for at least two years but, as a minor, it would've required both parents signing off and, god knows, I was letting that sleeping dog lie. So it was my big 18th birthday gift. I've never regretted it.

Wonder if the Berea College newspaper would count. (Not really.)

Don't see why it wouldn't. (Or certainly the town paper would -- they usually have a section in the classifieds for tiny print legal notices. You could be right there with so-and-so's new fishing license!)

The difference was that one of them had her middle initial, and the other didn't.

Stephen had the same problem -- fracking homeland security.