Changing Your Maiden Name After Marriage
If you got married recently and are looking for a way to change your name, you’ve come to the right place. In most cultures around the world, it is common for women to take on their husband’s name after marriage. Changing one’s maiden name is a monumental step. In India, if a woman wishes to change her surname after marriage, there is a specific set of steps to follow in order to make the name change official.
Adopting your husband’s name post marriage is a very personal decision as is the choice to add a Ms. or Mrs. to your name. While no law or government in the world mandates that a woman should change her name post marriage, for ladies wishing to do so, there is a legal process involved. So ladies, without much ado, let’s discuss this name change procedure.
Before we begin, we’d like to let all you ladies know that LegalDesk.com will be more than happy to help you with the entire process. We have a Name Change Package dedicated to this purpose.
Steps Involved In Changing Your Surname After Marriage
1. Creating the affidavit
An affidavit is a declaration made by an adult and sworn before an authority who has the power to witness an oath. Step of changing your maiden name involves creation of an affidavit by the lady who wishes to change her name. The affidavit should include the following details
- Maiden name
- Proposed change in surname/first name
- Name of spouse
- Present and permanent address
- A copy of the marriage certificate
- A declaration stating that all information furnished is true up to the best knowledge of the deponent
This affidavit must be drafted, printed on Stamp paper of minimum denomination and signed by the deponent. Unless you have easy access to lawyers, this step could be daunting. Thankfully, LegalDesk.com has a ready to use affidavit for name change after marriage which can be customized in under a few minutes. Using our affidavit will make this step super easy and doable from the comforts of your home!
2. Getting the affidavit notarized
This is probably the most time consuming task. It would require you to get the affidavit created in the previous step attested by a Notary Public. Attestation is the process of validating a document and its contents to be bonafide and true. Without attestation, the document will not be considered valid.
3. Submitting a newspaper advertisement
After attesting the affidavit you created in Step 1, you’ll be required to publish an advertisement in two local or two national dailies. One daily should be in local language and the other should be in English. Once the ad is published, buy multiple copies of the dailies because you’ll need the ad clippings for further steps.
4. Gazette Publication
This steps marks the conclusion of the name change procedure. However, it is not a compulsory step for non Govt. employees. That said, it is best that everyone executes this step to be on the safer side. To get this step done, visit a Govt. press and submit your ID, newspaper ad clippings & the affidavit prepared in step 1 to the Controller of Publications. This does not have to be done in person, it can be done through mail. You will have to pay a nominal fee as charge towards the proceedings. The authorities there should be able to tell you a probable date on which the publication might appear.
Congrats On Your New Name!
Changing your name is a procedure that spans weeks if not months. Once the ad appears in the gazette publication, make sure that you notify your banks, hospitals and other organizations that might still be using your old name.
As we conclude, we’d also like to inform you that LegalDesk.com will deliver stamp paper printed name change affidavits should you chose to create one with us. We also have a host of other legal documents which might be of use to you. Do try our services and let us know what you think. Cheers!
