Guides
Restoring your name in a Connecticut divorce
General information about Connecticut court procedure, not legal advice.
Connecticut treats getting your name back as a right, not a request the court weighs. Ask at the time of the divorce and the court must restore your birth name or former name. Realize later that you want it back, years later included, and the court must do it then too, without a hearing. This guide covers both paths.
During the divorce
Ask in the case itself. The Divorce Complaint's requests for relief include restoring your birth name or former name, and the same request is available to a defendant in their claims for relief. At the time of entering the divorce decree, upon the request of either spouse, the court restores the name. It is not discretionary.
In a nonadversarial divorce, the Agreement form (JD-FM-243) has a section for a name change for either petitioner, entered as part of the decree.
ProSay's divorce questions ask whether you want a name restored and collect the exact name, so the request is in your papers from the start.
After the divorce
Missing it at the decree costs nothing but a motion. At any time after the divorce, on the motion of either former spouse, the court must modify the judgment and restore the birth name or former name. The statute goes one step further: the court rules on that motion without a hearing. File it in the divorce case, under the same docket number, stating the name to be restored. The clerk's office can tell you what your filing needs.
After judgment, the court charges a fee to file a motion; if paying it would be a hardship, the Application for Waiver of Fees asks the court to waive it. See our guide on court fee waivers.
After the order
Get certified copies of the order from the clerk's office. Update Social Security first, then the DMV, then everything else.
Where to get help
Connecticut's Court Service Centers offer free help for self-represented parties. The clerk's office can answer questions about procedure but cannot give legal advice. Legal aid organizations serve people who qualify. If you want legal advice, talk to a licensed Connecticut attorney.
ProSay is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. ProSay is a self-help document preparation service.