Changing your name back in Alabama

Whether you can get your former name back in the divorce itself — and what it costs in Alabama if you miss that moment.

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The federal half is the same everywhere

Social Security, the passport, and the order to do them in are identical in all fifty states and are on the main name-change page. This page is the part that is Alabama-specific.

Restore it in the divorceYesIn the divorce, on request.
After the decree is finalYes separate statutory name-change petition
Newspaper publicationNot required No newspaper publication requirement appears in the Alabama AOC/State Bar adult…
Background checkYes AlabamaLegalHelp (statewide legal-aid self-help site)
Separate petition feevaries by countySet locally, so the number depends on where you file. The state pages below name a county example where we could confirm one.
CourtProbate Court of the county where… Petitioner must be a bona fide resident of the county where the petition is filed (the…

Restoring your name in the divorce

Alabama restores a former name through the divorce itself, under .

The Alabama Administrative Office of Courts’ do-it-yourself Divorce Complaint (Alabama State Bar form PS-08) lets a spouse check a box asking the circuit court to ‘Give me back my former name (list former name here): ____’. The form itself cites no statute, and no Alabama statute expressly authorizing restoration of a former name in a divorce judgment could be confirmed on a primary source. Ala. Code Sec. 30-2-11 exists in the divorce chapter but is titled ‘Wife may be enjoined from use of given name or initials of divorced husband’ – it is an injunction provision, not a restoration provision, and should not be cited as authority for restoring a name.

How much choice the judge has: discretionary

Who may ask: the party changing the name

Ask in the divorce — but missing it is not fatal

The statutory restoration in Alabama has to be requested while the case is open. It is still much the cheapest moment to do it. But there is a way back afterwards, set out in the next section.

If the decree is already final

The Alabama AOC’s official Final Judgment of Divorce form (C-57) contains no name-restoration paragraph, so if the request was not made in the complaint and written into the judgment, the practical route afterward is a probate court adult name-change petition (AOC/Alabama State Bar form PS-12, ‘Request to Change Name’). Statute left null: the probate court’s jurisdictional grant over name changes is commonly cited as Ala. Code Sec. 12-13-1(b)(10), but that citation could only be found on commercial aggregators (Justia, FindLaw, onecle), not on Alabama’s own code site, so it is not recorded here as verified.

The separate name-change petition

This is the route if the divorce route is closed to you, or if you want a name that is not a former one.

  • Court: Probate Court of the county where the petitioner resides
  • Filing fee: varies by county – see notes
  • Residency: Petitioner must be a bona fide resident of the county where the petition is filed (the Jefferson County probate petition requires the petitioner to swear to bona fide county residency). Petitioner must be 19 or older.
  • Publication: No newspaper publication requirement appears in the Alabama AOC/State Bar adult name-change materials or in the county probate court petitions reviewed (Jefferson, Madison, Shelby). Recorded as ‘not required’ on the strength of those primary sources, but note that Alabama probate practice is county-by-county and no statewide statute text could be read on a primary site to confirm the absence.
  • Background check: AlabamaLegalHelp (statewide legal-aid self-help site): ‘Many counties require background checks, which also have an additional cost. The most commonly required background checks are an Alabama Criminal History Record (ALEA Report) and an FBI background check.’ It is therefore county-dependent, not a uniform statewide requirement. Separately, the Jefferson County probate petition requires the petitioner to declare ‘that he/she has never been convicted as a Criminal Sex Offender; as provided by Act 98-489.’

Official forms

What catches people out in Alabama

Alabama splits the two routes across two different courts: the divorce is in circuit court, but a stand-alone adult name change is in the county probate court.
The AOC’s Final Judgment of Divorce form has no name paragraph at all – so asking for the name in the complaint is not enough; the judgment has to actually say it, or you will be sent to probate court later.
Background-check cost and requirement are set county by county, not statewide. Call the specific probate court before budgeting.
Alabama’s age of majority for this purpose is 19, not 18.
Ala. Code Sec. 30-2-11 turns up in searches for ‘Alabama divorce name’ but it is about enjoining a former wife from using the ex-husband’s given name/initials. It is not authority for restoring a maiden name.
Worth knowing

No Alabama statute expressly authorizing a divorce court to restore a former name could be verified on a primary source. The practice is documented only by the official court form, not by statute text.

Ala. Code Sec. 12-13-1(b)(10) is widely cited online as the probate court’s name-change jurisdiction, but it appears only on commercial aggregators (Justia, FindLaw, onecle) in reachable form. Per the source rules it is recorded as null rather than asserted.

No domestic-violence-specific publication exemption exists in Alabama because no publication requirement was found in the first place. There is likewise no found provision for sealing an adult name-change file for safety reasons – a real gap compared with states like Alaska and California.

Statewide filing fee could not be established. Madison County lists $37.00 for a name change; AlabamaLegalHelp describes a statewide range of roughly $25-$100 plus background-check costs. Only the Madison County figure comes from an official county source.

Sources for this page

Sources we could not reach when this page was built, listed so you know what was not checked rather than assuming it was: https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=12-13-1 – Alabama Legislature’s official code viewer is JavaScript-driven and returns only the site chrome, no statute text; https://alison.legislature.state.al.us/code-of-alabama?section=30-2-11 – same problem; https://eforms.alacourt.gov/media/jtzbncuw/request-to-change-name.pdf – server error on fetch (the URL is live and is the correct official form; only the automated fetch failed); http://eforms.alacourt.gov/Do%20It%20Yourself%20Forms/Request%20to%20Change%20Name.pdf – robots.txt fetch timeout; https://www.alabamalegalhelp.org/issues/families-and-children/name-change – disallowed by robots.txt

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Sources last checked30 August 2026
Page published30 August 2026
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