The rest of what we have written about Arizona. Every figure is quoted from Arizona’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Changing your name back in Arizona
Whether you can get your former name back in the divorce itself — and what it costs in Arizona if you miss that moment.
See a different stateArizona
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 Arizona-specific.
Restoring your name in the divorce
Arizona restores a former name through the divorce itself, under A.R.S. Sec. 25-325(C) (Decree; finality; restoration of maiden name).
‘On request by a party at any time before the signing of the decree of dissolution or annulment by the court, the court shall order that the party’s requested former name be restored.’
How much choice the judge has: mandatory on request – the statute says the court ‘shall order’ the restoration, so the judge has no discretion to refuse a timely request
Who may ask: the party changing the name
The statutory restoration in Arizona 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
A.R.S. 25-325(C) is expressly limited to a request made ‘at any time before the signing of the decree.’ Once the judge signs, the mandatory-restoration door closes and the ordinary adult name-change application under A.R.S. 12-601 in superior court is the route – which means a filing fee (about $367 in Maricopa County), a hearing the applicant must attend, and notice obligations. Whether a Rule 85 motion to amend the decree would be entertained instead is not addressed by any primary source found.
Authority: A.R.S. Sec. 12-601 (Application; venue; judgment; sealing of record)
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.
- Statute: A.R.S. Sec. 12-601
- Court: Superior Court in the county where the applicant resides
- Filing fee: varies by county – see notes
- Residency: File in the superior court in your county of residence. AZCourtHelp (Arizona judiciary self-help): ‘You may file an application in the superior court in your county of residence.’ No minimum length of residence was stated in any primary source found.
- Publication: No newspaper publication requirement appears anywhere in the Arizona statewide name-change forms or the Maricopa County Superior Court self-service instructions. Arizona instead uses targeted notice: the Maricopa packet requires notice by certified mail at least 30 days before the hearing, and an applicant with pending felony charges (or a conviction for a crime involving false statements or misrepresentation of identity) must give notice to the prosecutor’s office that charged them.
- Background check: No fingerprinting and no criminal-history check is required. The applicant self-discloses on the form ‘whether you have ever been convicted of a felony, and whether there are any pending charges against you for a felony or other offense,’ and must certify they are ‘not changing your name to that of another person for the purpose of committing any crime.’ Notice to the prosecutor is the enforcement mechanism, not a records check.
- Hearing: required
Official forms
- Arizona Judicial Branch Self-Service Center – statewide Name Change forms (adult form CVNC11F)
- Maricopa County Superior Court – How to File for a Change of Name for an Adult (instructions, CVNCA10p)
- Maricopa County Superior Court – adult name change packet (CVNCA1)
- Maricopa County Clerk of Superior Court – filing fee schedule
What catches people out in Arizona
Arizona is one of the cleaner states on this: the restoration right in divorce is mandatory (‘shall order’), expressly available to either party, and requires no reason.
A.R.S. 12-601 is officially titled ‘Application; venue; judgment; sealing of record’ on the Legislature’s own site, so a sealing-of-record mechanism does exist in the adult name-change statute. The substantive conditions for sealing we could not read – see blocked sources – and neither the statewide forms nor the Maricopa packet mentions sealing, confidentiality, or domestic violence at all. Treat ‘Arizona can seal a name change’ as plausible but unverified, and ask the clerk.
There is no newspaper publication requirement in Arizona, so the usual domestic-violence publication-exemption question does not arise. The exposure risk here is the ordinary public court record, not a legal notice ad.
The $367 figure is the Maricopa County Clerk’s listed ‘Petition for Change of Name’ fee. Arizona fees are set county by county on top of a state base fee authorized by A.R.S. 12-284, so do not treat $367 as statewide. No second county’s official schedule was located, and no effective date is published on the Maricopa page.
Sources for this page
- Restoration in the divorce: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/25/00325.htm
- Separate name-change petition: https://superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/media/1p3l4pkb/cvnca10pz.pdf
- Filing fee: https://www.clerkofcourt.maricopa.gov/services/filings/filing-fees
Sources we could not reach when this page was built, listed so you know what was not checked rather than assuming it was: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/12/00601.htm – Arizona Legislature returned a JavaScript redirect stub instead of the statute text on repeated attempts, so A.R.S. 12-601 is cited on the authority of the Arizona judiciary’s own forms and AZCourtHelp rather than quoted from the code. (A.R.S. 25-325 on the same site did return text.)
Found an error? Tell us — it goes on the corrections page with the date and how long it was live.