More on Colorado

The rest of what we have written about Colorado. Every figure is quoted from Colorado’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.

Changing your name back in Colorado

Whether you can get your former name back in the divorce itself — and what it costs in Colorado 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 Colorado-specific.

Restore it in the divorceYesC.R.S. Sec. 14-10-120.2 (Ex-parte request for restoration of prior name of party), enacted by HB16-1085
After the decree is finalYes motion to modify the decree
Newspaper publicationRequired Yes. Colorado Judicial Branch self-help
Background checkYes Yes, and it is one of the more burdensome in the country. Colorado Judicial Branch
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.
CourtDistrict Court or County Court in… File in the county where you reside. No minimum length of residence was found in a…

Restoring your name in the divorce

Colorado restores a former name through the divorce itself, under C.R.S. Sec. 14-10-120.2 (Ex-parte request for restoration of prior name of party), enacted by HB16-1085.

‘(1) AT ANY TIME AFTER THE ENTRY OF A DECREE OF DISSOLUTION OR LEGAL SEPARATION, A PARTY TO THE ACTION MAY REQUEST RESTORATION OF A PRIOR FULL NAME.’ Subsection (2) requires a verified motion and affidavit with the case caption and a sworn statement that restoration is ‘not detrimental to any person.’ Subsection (3): the court shall grant the order if it determines the decree exists and the non-detriment standard is met. Subsection (4): ‘THE ORDER RESTORING A PRIOR FULL NAME OF THE PARTY DOES not AFFECT ANY PARTY’S RIGHTS OR OBLIGATIONS PURSUANT TO THE DECREE.’ The Colorado decree form (JDF 1019) also has a built-in paragraph 3.c) ‘Name Restoration: The Petitioner’s name is restored to: ___ / The Respondent’s name is restored to: ___’.

How much choice the judge has: mandatory on request, subject to one condition – the court ‘shall grant’ the order once it confirms the decree exists and the party swears restoration is ‘not detrimental to any person’

Who may ask: either party

Not a now-or-never decision

Colorado does not require this to be settled before the decree is final.

If the decree is already final

Colorado built an explicit after-the-fact route and it is cheap. Colorado Judicial Branch: name restoration ‘can be filed at any time after a decree has been entered’ – it does not need to be requested before the decree is finalized. File JDF 1824 (Verified Motion and Affidavit for Name Restoration After Dissolution of Marriage/Civil Union or Legal Separation) and JDF 1825 (proposed Order) in the court that entered the decree. no FILING FEE if filed within 60 days of the decree; $105.00 if filed after that 60-day window. No publication and no fingerprinting – those belong to the separate Sec. 13-15-101 petition, not to this motion.

Authority: C.R.S. Sec. 14-10-120.2

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: C.R.S. Sec. 13-15-101 (petition and criminal history record check); C.R.S. Sec. 13-15-102 (public notice/publication, including the Sec. 13-15-102(4) exemptions)
  • Court: District Court or County Court in the county of residence (Colorado allows either)
  • Filing fee: varies by county – see notes (schedule dated 2013-07-01 (the published statewide JDF 1 fees chart states its figures are current as of July 1, 2013 – verify with the clerk before relying on it))
  • Residency: File in the county where you reside. No minimum length of residence was found in a primary source.
  • Publication: Yes. Colorado Judicial Branch self-help: ‘You will have to contact your local newspaper agency and have your proposed name published … at least three times within 21 days from the date when the Order for Publication was entered.’ Form JDF 433 cites Sec. 13-15-102, C.R.S. for the court’s order of publication.
  • Background check: Yes, and it is one of the more burdensome in the country. Colorado Judicial Branch: ‘A fingerprint-based criminal history record check is required from both the CBI (Colorado Bureau of Investigation) and the FBI,’ and the checks must be ‘conducted within 90 days prior to the filing of the Petition.’ JDF 433 cites Sec. 13-15-101(b), C.R.S. and requires certified, fingerprint-based FBI and CBI record checks dated within 90 days of filing. Both checks cost money on top of the filing fee.

Official forms

What catches people out in Colorado

The 60-day clock is the thing to know: JDF 1824 is FREE within 60 days of the decree and $105 after. If you are even thinking about your former name, file it inside 60 days.
Do not confuse the two Colorado routes. The post-divorce restoration motion (Sec. 14-10-120.2 / JDF 1824) has no publication and no fingerprinting. The general adult name-change petition (Sec. 13-15-101 / JDF 433) has both. Anyone who only wants a former name back should never be sent down the JDF 433 path.
For the JDF 433 route the CBI and FBI fingerprint checks must be dated within 90 days BEFORE filing – get them too early and you have to redo them.
County court ($100) is much cheaper than district court ($227) for a name-change petition, and Colorado lets you file in either. Fees are from the state’s own chart but are marked current as of July 1, 2013, so confirm before writing a check.
The Sec. 14-10-120.2 affidavit requires you to swear restoration is ‘not detrimental to any person’ – the one substantive hurdle, and it is low.
Worth knowing

Colorado has an express publication waiver for domestic violence survivors. The Colorado Judicial Branch’s adult name-change page states publication can be waived for ‘domestic violence, child abuse, or domestic abuse victims,’ and separately for a petitioner ‘changing their name to conform with the petitioner’s gender identity.’ The page ties these to C.R.S. Sec. 18-6-800.3(1), Sec. 18-6-401, Sec. 13-14-101(2), and Sec. 13-15-102(4). The 2024 session law (Ch. 111, HB24-1071) amended Sec. 13-15-102(4) to provide that ‘A petitioner need not give public notice of a name change’ when changing the name to conform with gender identity.

Colorado is one of the few states that expressly authorizes name restoration AFTER the decree by statute rather than sending you to a general name-change petition – and makes it free for 60 days.

The restoration statute is gender-neutral and available to ‘a party,’ not just to a wife.

hearing_required left null: neither JDF 433 nor the judicial branch self-help page states whether a hearing is mandatory for an adult name change, and the statutory text of Sec. 13-15-101 we could not read directly.

The statewide fees chart is dated 2013. Treat $227 / $100 as indicative, not current.

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://www.coloradojudicial.gov/media/2299 – JDF 1825 PDF returned binary data that could not be parsed; Colorado’s official consolidated statute text (leg.colorado.gov) is published as bulk data and session-law PDFs rather than a browsable section viewer; Sec. 14-10-120.2 was recovered from the signed 2016 act, but Sec. 13-15-101 and Sec. 13-15-102 could only be verified through the judiciary’s own forms and self-help pages and a 2024 session law

Found an error? Tell us — it goes on the corrections page with the date and how long it was live.

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Sources last checked30 August 2026
Page published30 August 2026
What this means. This is when the sources on this page were last read against their originals — statutes, court rules, official schedules — taken from the date this page was built from its sources. It is not the date the page was last edited. Adding a link or fixing a typo does not move it; re-reading the statute does. Law changes without notice, so treat anything time-sensitive as needing a fresh check. Where we get something wrong we publish it at thecusp.app/corrections with the date, what changed, and how long the error was live.