I just got back from my trip to the social security office to have a new SS card made with my married name (I have no idea where my original card is). I just had to say — it was so much easier than I’d expected.
I printed and filled out the form from www.ssa.gov before I left, got there about 9:30 and waited about an hour. I’m sure the wait would have been shorter if I arrived before they opened, but I brought a good book (Early Bird by Rodney Rotham). I went to the office at 237 West 48th Street between Broadway & 8th Ave in Manhattan.
NOTE — If you live in Queens or Brooklyn they will not help you at the Manhattan office!! While I was there I saw more than one disgruntled person argue with the check in guys.
Anyway — if you’ve been putting this off because you thought it would be a huge headache…don’t. The thing that shocked me the most is they didn’t even ask to see my ID. I brought my passport and drivers license just in case and I tried to show the clerk my passport, and she said “I don’t need that.” I guess I had the marriage license but what if I wasn’t who I said I was?! A little scary.
To change your name or not is a big issue and most women feel very strongly about it. My major deciding factor to take Mr. Onion’s name was I didn’t want to have a different last name than my children. Also I feel more like we’re a family already with one name. And to be honest, it’s a nice name. If it had been something impossible to pronounce or spell, would I have taken it? I’m not so sure! 
In two weeks I’ll officially be Mrs. Onion! Then I can change my name on my credit card, drivers license, passport etc.
For those of you who’ve already gone through this process, do you have any tips? Any important forms I’m forgetting? Approximately how much did it cost to change your name (fees for new ID’s, forms etc)? I’d love to learn from your experience.
If you got your SSN# printout, then you can change your name everywhere now. It’s already in the computer and that’s what everyone else operates off of. I changed my name at the DMV the day after I went to the SS Office (in CA you can make appts online for the DMV), and called in/sent in all the necessary changes for credit cards and frequent flier miles.
I needed my Driver’s License an the wedding license, and they asked me a series of questions to “verify” my identity. It only took about 10 minutes in total.
I remember a loooong wait, but yeah luckily I had printed the form out online and kept a spare one just in case. I also traded a ‘please-wait-in-line” ticket with a girl who needed a ride across town. I don’t know how long I would have been there if she hadn’t traded.
Changing my last name was sure easier than changing my first name.
If you’ve already gotten your marriage certificate and SS card, you probably won’t hit more than $50-100 in charges to change your name. I think only the DMV and passport agency charge you. Credit cards, PayPal, online registration, schools, etc. don’t charge you in my experience.
According to the SS website, you can mail in your docs — does anyone know if they will accept your OLD driver’s license (w/ your maiden name)? (I can’t exactly surrender the current one…)
I called my credit card company to ask what I needed to send them to change my name — nothing! She just needed to know how to spell it and I had a new credit card a few days later. Then I tried to change the name on my frequent hotel card and holy crap they need a whole bunch of stuff including the marriage certificate. It seemed a little TOO easy to change the credit card name…but I guess it’s the same name the bill goes to right?!
Mrs. Onion, if you don’t want to wait for 2 weeks to start changing your driver’s license, credit card, etc, you can actually just use your marriage license for it. I got my name changed at the social security in less than an hour and the man behind the counter told me that I can actually just take the marriage license and head to DMV to get my new license. I did just that and it was $10. I then went to my bank and changed my name there (had to show them my new driver’s license). As for credit cards, they pretty much just took my word for it.
If you have gotten a new passport in the past year (I only got mine just before our honeymoon), then you don’t have to pay again.
Mrs. Onion, while it is your decision completely whether or not to change your name, I had to cringe just a little when you wrote, “I didn’t want to have a different last name than my children.” This was such a blanket assumption that the only possible last name for your children to have would be your new husband’s surname. JThis comment implies that there are no other options for your future child’s last name other than your new husband’s surname, when it would be possible for your child’s last name to be your own surname. This is, in fact, what my FI and I plan to do.
And since name changing topics are mentioned so often on this board, here is the Indiebride thread devoted to it.
thanks for all the feedback — sugarlens, great to know that I can go to the dmv without the SS card — very helpful info.
E - Of course there are other options, but it’s not just that I didn’t want to have a different name than my children, but I wanted us to have the same name without hyphenating them. I want us to have a family name together — all of us. And what is one to do two generations from now when little Johnny Smith-Jones marries little Sarah Patterson-Priven….is their child going to be named Johnny Patterson-Priven-Smith-Jones? It just seems like it will get out of hand — but that is just my opinion.
Miss Onion, NYC/Burlington, VT
Age and Occupation: 26, PR & Marketing and Jazz Singer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Data Analyst
Engagement Date: April 2, 2006
Wedding Date: September 2007
Blogging Since: July 11, 2007
Venue: Restaurant in Burlington
About Me: I didn't think I'd be "that girl," but I am having so much fun planning our wedding (mostly by myself). I'm a PR and Marketing Director for a major jazz festival and camp by day, and by night, a romantic jazz singer and bride-to-be! I hope all my research can help other brides in their planning.
Do you knot if it is possible to do the SS thing entirely online?