Has anyone changed their child's name?

amother

Sat, Nov 11 2023, 9:42 pm

One of my kids has an English name that is nothing like their Hebrew name. It made sense to dh and me at the time. This kid knows their English name, but we never use it. Now that this child is getting to the age of being registered for school I'm thinking ahead to all the hassles they will have later on with names not matching. DH and I recently floated the idea of changing the legal name to the Hebrew name. I did some googling and it seems possible. Has anyone actually done this, and how hard was the process? In NY.

amother

Camellia

Sat, Nov 11 2023, 10:04 pm

I did it in NY after seminary… didn’t like having a name I didn’t identify with. Would rather the nurse mispronounce my name. I did it with my mother. Nothing too terible

amother

Firethorn

Sat, Nov 11 2023, 10:38 pm

I did it. It was a bit of a hassle because I was working crazy hours at the time, but I’m glad I took care of it. The process itself isn’t hard, all the instructions are online.

amother

Latte

Sun, Nov 12 2023, 4:49 am

I looked into it because my parents gave me a legal English name that I hate. It’s never used and I’m embarrassed for people to find the name out. I’m only called by my Hebrew name and this English name really bothers me since that’s the name on all my legal documents.
When I looked into changing the name my mother told me that I can do it but I would have to pay for it. Back then it was $200. I’m sure it’s more now. I wasn’t earning much and didn’t want to pay that amount. Now it’s many years later and I’m married and it would be too complicated to change my name but it has caused a lot of issues for me over the years.

amother

Chestnut

Sun, Nov 12 2023, 7:38 am

Yes we did it. Wasn’t some hard at all and since the child wasn’t in school yet we only had to switch the social security and insurance card.
Do it now while it doesn’t entail so much.

amother

Latte

Sun, Nov 12 2023, 8:28 am

amother Chestnut wrote:

Yes we did it. Wasn’t some hard at all and since the child wasn’t in school yet we only had to switch the social security and insurance card.
Do it now while it doesn’t entail so much.

Don’t forget the birth certificate

amother

Sun, Nov 12 2023, 8:40 am

amother Chestnut wrote:

Yes we did it. Wasn’t some hard at all and since the child wasn’t in school yet we only had to switch the social security and insurance card.
Do it now while it doesn’t entail so much.

I'm really appreciating all these responses! Making me think it's not such a crazy idea.
Chestnut, did you actually have to go into court for it?

amother

Chestnut

Sun, Nov 12 2023, 8:51 am

amother OP wrote:

I'm really appreciating all these responses! Making me think it's not such a crazy idea.
Chestnut, did you actually have to go into court for it?

We did but this was precovid days so I don’t know if it’s different now.

amother

Hawthorn

Sun, Nov 12 2023, 9:06 am

We did it in NJ. We had to schedule an appointment to appear in court. Before getting the appointment there were forms to fill out first and I had to mail ourselves a certified letter at home informing my husband that we were doing a name change. I asked my husband to come to court with me and I think it made things go more quickly. It was approved on the spot. The court appearance was very quick. I ordered a few certified copies of the Final judgment of the name change. You’ll need them to get social security cards, passports and birth certificates. I also just felt better having a few for each child.

We changed all 5 of our kids.

Go online and get the steps for a name change in your state and follow them. It’s not so bad. You do it once, lasts forever.

amother

Sun, Nov 12 2023, 9:19 am

amother Hawthorn wrote:

Thanks! This sounds similar to the online directions for NY. Were you able to do all of your kids at once?

amother

Hawthorn

Sun, Nov 12 2023, 7:59 pm

amother OP wrote:

Thanks! This sounds similar to the online directions for NY. Were you able to do all of your kids at once?

Yes. Each child had their own filing number but it was one court date.

el2cg

Sun, Nov 12 2023, 8:42 pm

I changed my daughter's legal name before she was 18. During covid. I had to wait until courts reopened. Went down, had to come back because l was missing something. I needed more proof of identity... then we needed to publish it and go down again to get the court order. I than changed her social (in person) and birth Certificate- which l messed up the application as well (by mail). I then went down for birth Certificate and they needed to see my husband birth Certificate which l didn't have... thank gd the clerk was nice to me and was able to pull it up in her system. So it was a huge hassle but I'm glad l finally did it. I had filled out the forms to change her name as a newborn and didn't go through with it...