More on Kentucky

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

Changing your name back in Kentucky

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

Restore it in the divorceYesKRS 403.230
After the decree is finalYes separate statutory name-change petition
Newspaper publicationNot required no. KRS Chapter 401 contains only four sections
Background checkNo No fingerprinting or criminal history check appears in KRS Chapter 401 or on the Kentucky…
Separate petition feeNot establishedWe could not confirm this from an official fee schedule, so treat it as indicative and call the clerk before you write the check.
CourtDistrict Court KRS 401.010

Restoring your name in the divorce

Kentucky restores a former name through the divorce itself, under KRS 403.230.

‘Upon request by a wife whose marriage is dissolved or declared invalid, the court may, and if there are no children of the parties shall, order her maiden name or a former name restored.’ (The section is captioned ‘Legal separation — Court may convert, to a decree of dissolution — Restoration of former name.’)

How much choice the judge has: split: mandatory where there are no children of the parties (‘shall’), discretionary where there are children (‘may’)

Who may ask: the party changing the name – and note that the statute as written speaks only of ‘a wife’

If the decree is already final

KRS 403.230 does not state a deadline, and no primary source was found stating whether a Kentucky court may act on the request after the decree is final, so must_request_before_final is left null rather than guessed. The reliable fallback is the standalone district court petition under KRS 401.010, which is comparatively cheap and simple in Kentucky: no newspaper publication and no background check.

Authority: KRS 401.010

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: KRS 401.010 (adults), with KRS 401.030 (order book entry) and KRS 401.040 (certification to the county clerk)
  • Court: District Court
  • Residency: KRS 401.010: ‘Any person at least eighteen (18) years of age may have his or her name changed by the District Court of the county in which he or she resides.’ A person residing on a military installation may use the district court of an adjacent county. No minimum duration of residency is stated.
  • Publication: no. KRS Chapter 401 contains only four sections – 401.010 (adult name change by District Court), 401.020 (minors), 401.030 (information entered on the court’s order book), and 401.040 (certification of the order to the county clerk) – and none of them imposes a newspaper publication requirement. SAFETY EXEMPTION: not needed for publication, since there is none. There is a related confidentiality hook worth knowing: KRS 401.040 directs the clerk to certify a copy of the name change order ‘to the county clerk, for record’ UNLESS the court has sealed or otherwise restricted the record, which contemplates that a Kentucky court can seal a name-change record. No dedicated domestic-violence name-change statute was located.
  • Background check: No fingerprinting or criminal history check appears in KRS Chapter 401 or on the Kentucky Court of Justice’s AOC-295 Petition for Name Change. The petition does require a sworn representation: ‘I am not requesting this name change to avoid a legal obligation or evade prosecution,’ and it warns that using a name change for identity theft is a Class D felony under KRS 514.160. The petition is notarized and a hearing is scheduled by the judge.
  • Hearing: required

Official forms

What catches people out in Kentucky

KRS 403.230 is written in gendered terms – ‘Upon request by a wife’ – and its mandatory branch applies only where there are no children of the parties. If you have children with your ex-spouse, restoration in the divorce is discretionary with the judge.
The petition is filed in the Circuit Clerk’s Office, but the case is a District Court case. The AOC-295 says so explicitly; people file in the wrong division because of it.
Kentucky requires a hearing before a judge even though there is no publication and no objection period.
The name change order is certified to the county clerk and indexed there unless the court seals or restricts the record – ask for that at the hearing if disclosure is a safety issue.
Worth knowing

Kentucky is one of the lightest-touch states in this batch for the standalone petition: District Court, no newspaper publication, no fingerprints, no criminal history check.

KRS 403.230’s restoration provision is still gendered on its face and conditions the mandatory branch on the absence of children – both unusual, and both contrary to the common summary that ‘the court must restore your name on request.’

KRS 401.040 as currently written includes a forward-dated fee provision: ‘Beginning January 1, 2028, the clerk of the court shall collect the fee required under KRS 64.012 for the filing of a court-ordered name change.’ The amount is set by KRS 64.012 and was not read here.

No filing fee is recorded. The Kentucky Court of Justice’s AOC-295 does not state one, and the Circuit Court Clerks’ Manual did not yield a name-change line item. Left null rather than guessed – ask your Circuit Clerk.

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.kycourts.gov/Courts/County-Information/Documents/ClerksManual.pdf (retrieved, but contains no name-change filing fee line item)

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.