What’s in a Name?

Deciding to transition from male to female, or vice versa, comes with its own select subset of decisions –decisions that will turn your life around. Most people will seek out a knowledgeable psychotherapist who will help you to determine whether your decision to transition is authentic or fantasy, and assist you in seeking out other professionals who will assist you in other aspects of your transitional needs – most notably, medical professionals who will examine you, poke holes in you and, in the end, give you a prescription for some pills or vials of girl juice – their choice of treatment! The point of this being that most of the decisions going into your transition are made by others.

But, there is one decision that remains within the power of the person who’s actually transitioning, a decision that is deeply personal and means something special to them – selecting the name they will go by. One’s name is important in all their social interactions, official papers, drivers license, passport, all forms of ID. It is so important to represent the person we want to become that some of us choose it and use it informally even before it is “legal.”

In my practice, I do a lot of name changes for Transmen and Transwomen, both in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The requirements for changing one’s name are statutory and similar in both states, differing only by their respective statutes. Both states require public notice and a court hearing.

I will say right now that you don’t have to be an attorney to file a petition to change your name. Especially in New Jersey, the unified court system has forms on its website that can be printed, filled out and filed in the Superior Court in the county you live in. Filing Fee is $250. Besides the petition, there are a couple affidavits to complete and file, also. There is also a publication notice requirement in a local newspaper once the date for the hearing is set. The one redeeming quality with New Jersey’s scheme is that the process and fees are the same throughout all the counties in the state. I have never had any NJ court fail to approve a name change for any transgender client, Once the final order is issued, it must be also published in the local paper. Proof of publication affidavits (provided by the newspaper) will need to be filed with the Court. Lastly, you’ll have to get certified copies of the final order, and serve one on the NJ State Treasurer by certified mail. When the green card comes back, file it with the court as proof of service on the Treasury.

Cue up Pennsylvania. Compared to New Jersey, Pennsylvania operates as 67 different jurisdictions that, while hewing to the state statutes, implement them in different ways. The only real hard-and-fast rule across the whole state is the requirement for a state police criminal background check. And the results of the search may disqualify someone from getting their name changed. Conviction of murder, voluntary manslaughter, rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, robbery as defined in 3701(a)(1)(i)?18 Pa.C.S. § (relating to robbery), aggravated assault as defined in 2702(a)(1) or (2)?18 Pa.C.S. § (relating to aggravated assault), arson as defined in 3301(a)?18 Pa.C.S. § (relating to arson and related offenses), kidnapping or robbery of a motor vehicle or criminal attempt, criminal conspiracy or criminal solicitation to commit any of the offenses listed above or an equivalent crime under the laws of this Commonwealth in effect at the time of the commission of that offense or an equivalent crime in another jurisdiction. certain crimes, such as aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault, rape, and similar crimes of violence. The bar is for life.

Also, in Pennsylvania, a search of outstanding civil judgments much be done, and a certification of what may be found in that search will be sent to the Petitioner or the court clerk. Some courts require up to five different searches, with a fee for each. Other county courts provide one civil court search as a as part of the filing fee. And some county courts require Family Court reports regarding outstanding support issues. Just keeping track of who wants what is a task. And, of course, Pennsylvania requires publications once the hearing date is scheduled. The public notices are published in a newspaper of general circulation and the legal publication in that county.

The complications and differences between the requirements from county to county would suggest retaining professional help. But for those intrepid explorers through bureaucracy, sample PA forms can be found on-line, but it would be wise to make sure that they are up to date.

Anecdotally, I must confess that I myself did not go through all that rigamarole when I first transitioned in 1992. It was known by the legal eagles in the community that the name change statute at that time included a common usage alternative to formal petition and hearing. In essence, a person could go by any name they wanted, as long as it was used exclusively, and was not intended for fraudulent or criminal reasons. And with that, I obtained a video rental card, went across the street and got library card (they just swapped names on my account), then a legitimate bank account, check cashing privileges at the local supermarket, a couple credit cards, and anything else I could put my new name on. Ultimately, I had a drivers license with my new name and picture on it. But I had to pester Penndot three times to get the “M” replaced with an “F”. With that piece of documentation, I had the name and gender on my social security account amended, and had a new card in hand. With those two pieces of identification, I walked into my employer’s personnel office and asked that they amend their records. What I got was a month of administrative leave with the promise of discharge at the end.

But that is a subject for another article.

Like to make a comment? Login here and use the comment area below.

Tags: featured, legal, name change

Category: Legal