Alabama Name Change Forms – PDF Templates

Petition (All Counties)

Madison County

Jefferson County

A online guide on how to legally change your name in the state of Alabama. To ensure that you do this properly, and that everything is well taken care of you need to be able follow exact instructions to help avoid potential errors. This can help out anyone; so anyone can use this from changing your name because of divorce down to just wanting a different name in general.

• Statute – 26-11-3
• Statute – 30-2-11

How to Legally Change Your Name in Alabama

1. Get Together all of your personal information! Personal information as in: Your I.D (Identification card); birth certificate; social security card; any marriage or divorce papers; and last but not least your petition for the name change; which is dependent on the county you reside in. To petition you should visit your local County office; for instance Jefferson County requires you to complete a petition in complete black ink only.
2. Once you have figured out the county you must go to in order to change your name; you can then begin to get that petition notarized. To get this done you must visit a branch bank; because branch banks most of the time have public notaries on staff.
3. Time to get that petition up and filed. It’s smart and recommended to make two copies of all your personal documents and start to file your petition with your Local County Clerks Office.
4. Sometimes Court dates are issued and you will get a notice in the mail letting you know ahead of time if this is going to be required of you; this is completely up to the courts. If this doesn’t happen then instead you will get a notice of when you may come and get your official legal order of your name change.
5. Once your name change is accepted you must let all important and legal institutions know such as: The DMV; Social Security Office; Insurance Policies, and any banks and passport agency’s.