Legal Question in Administrative Law in California

Name Change Reciprocity

If a person changes his name (without intent to defraud) in California under the common useage provision, and he notifies dmv, Social Security, Passports, Creditors, etc.... to obtain identification showing the new name; then later moves to Florida; will Florida accept that name change as legal or will that person have to go through a court proceedure to have it changed to the name indicated on all the California ID's?


Asked on 6/04/03, 2:28 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: Name Change Reciprocity

You should get a definitive answer from a Florida lawyer, but since LawGuru distributed this question to California lawyers as well, I might as well give you a preliminary opinion.

Under the so-called comity provisions of the U.S. Constitution, states are to respect and honor the legal policies of sister states -- giving their laws "full faith and credit." This hasn't always worked, for example, the differences in laws respecting slavery contributed to the Civil War. However, states do respect each other's laws on divorce, marriage, interpretation of wills, and a whole lot more, and name-change laws would probably be respected as well.

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Answered on 6/04/03, 1:31 pm


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