My Name Change Experience

Filing my request
So I went down to the courthouse on Tuesday, May 8, 2001 and filed my request. It cost $1 for the form and $34 to file it. The clerk was a young guy with spiked hair and gold hoops in each ear. When he saw my old (male) name he called me 'sir' but otherwise was cool. He asked me how I chose my new name and we chatted for a bit about that. The hearings are always Fridays at 10am and if you file before Wednesday noon you get it the same week. So my hearing got set for that Friday.

My day in court
I went back on Friday, May 11, 2001 for my hearing. I dressed in nice businessy attire - a black sweater, khaki skirt, pantyhose, and some black dress flats that I had just purchased. I wanted to make a good impression! I got there early and had to wait outside the room until the judge was ready for us. While waiting the woman sitting next to me asked if I was doing a name change also. I said yes and she asked if I was getting a divorce or getting married. I said no, just a life change. She said "me too." I don't think her life change was as big as mine though! Then the clerk called us all in. There were a bunch of people doing name changes that day - couples changing their respective names to match, women changing their first or last names, and a couple of men doing the same.

Nobody had read me so I wasn't real happy about getting called to the podium under my old name. But you gotta do what you gotta do. The judge was cool though and called me last. Almost everyone else was gone by the time he called [old male name] to the stand. I had listed my reason for the name change as 'gender reassignment' so I was prepared to explain the entire transition process to him. But there was no need. He swore me in and asked if I was doing it for any illegal purpose. I said "no" and he said "name change granted." That was it! The clerk gave me a form to take to the newspaper for my ad, and I was done. The entire thing only took half an hour including waiting for all the other people.

The paper's office was nearby, at the upper end of the Pearl Street Mall, so I walked over. I felt overdressed in my business attire down there! Everyone else had been there just before me doing their ads, so when I walked up to the classified ads counter they knew why I was there - "name change huh?" I guess every Friday they get a new batch of name change people. So I placed my ad and they said they would mail a certificate to me that I could take back to the courthouse as proof the ad had been run. That night I had champagne to celebrate! I have a new personal holiday - May 11, Debby's Day - the day I became legally recognized under my new name!

Getting certified
The ad ran Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The certificate arrived in the mail Thursday and I went back to the courthouse with it on Friday, May 18. I filed it with the clerk's office and purchased four certified copies of the name change order. The four copies cost me $23. Overall the entire name change ended up costing about $100 including the classified ad. At that point the legal process was complete but I still had to send out lots of name change letters to update my bank accounts, credit cards, driver's license, vehicle registrations, etc.

Throughout the whole process nobody so much as raised an eyebrow over my male name and female appearance. You'd think they saw people like me come through every day! The hardest part of the process was making the decision to do it. Doing the name change was pretty routine.

That was cool but still nobody knew about my name change. So the next step was to update my documents.

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