Changing your name back in Massachusetts

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

Restore it in the divorceYesMass. Gen. Laws ch. 208, § 23
After the decree is finalYes separate statutory name-change petition
Newspaper publicationNot required Publication is no LONGER the default. Under c. 210, § 13(a) the court ‘may, for good…
Background checkYes No fingerprints. Uniform Practice XXXV requires that ‘The Probation Department shall…
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.
CourtProbate and Family Court (county… The petition ‘may be heard by the probate court in the county where the petitioner…

Restoring your name in the divorce

Massachusetts restores a former name through the divorce itself, under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 208, § 23.

“The court granting a divorce may allow a woman to resume her maiden name or that of a former husband.” (full text of the section)

How much choice the judge has: discretionary – the statute says the court ‘may allow’

Who may ask: the party changing the name

If the decree is already final

Mass.gov’s official ‘Massachusetts law about name changes’ page lists c. 208, § 23 as the divorce-decree route and c. 210, §§ 12-14 as the general adult name-change route in the Probate and Family Court. Whether a c. 208, § 23 request can instead be raised by mail-judgment motion in the divorce case is not addressed in the statute and I could not confirm it on a primary source, so the separate c. 210 § 12 petition is the route I can document.

Authority: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 210, §§ 12-13

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: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 210, §§ 12-13
  • Court: Probate and Family Court (county where the petitioner resides)
  • Residency: The petition ‘may be heard by the probate court in the county where the petitioner resides’ (c. 210, § 12). No minimum durational residency is stated in the statute.
  • Publication: Publication is no LONGER the default. Under c. 210, § 13(a) the court ‘may, for good cause shown, require public notice of the petition to be given and any person to be heard thereon.’ The Probate and Family Court’s Uniform Practice XXXV reporter’s notes state that the default requirement of notice by publication was eliminated as of November 25, 2025 (Uniform Practice XXXV as amended effective January 6, 2026). Section 13(b) further provides that the petition and all documents filed with it ‘shall not be available for inspection unless the court, for good cause shown, otherwise orders or unless requested by the petitioner’ and that the papers ‘shall be segregated’; the case caption and docket number are not impounded.
  • Background check: No fingerprints. Uniform Practice XXXV requires that ‘The Probation Department shall conduct a Court Activity Record Information (CARI) and Warrant Management System (WMS) check for any person 12 years of age or older who is the subject of a petition for a change of name.’ Adults file form CJP 34 requesting that check.

Official forms

What catches people out in Massachusetts

The divorce name-restoration statute, c. 208, § 23, is written only for ‘a woman’ and only for a maiden name or the name of ‘a former husband’. It has not been updated to gender-neutral language, so a husband or a same-sex spouse who wants a former name back has no obviously applicable divorce statute and is likely pushed to the c. 210, § 12 petition.
Section 23 also lets a woman resume the name of a FORMER husband, not just her birth name – broader than most states.
Newspaper publication in adult name-change cases ended November 25, 2025. Guidance published before that date (including much of what is online) is wrong on this point.
The name-change file itself is segregated and not open to public inspection under c. 210, § 13(b), but the caption and docket number are not impounded.
Probation runs a CARI and Warrant Management System check on every petitioner 12 or older – it is automatic, not something you opt into.
Worth knowing

I could not find the Probate and Family Court filing fee for a name-change petition on any primary Massachusetts court page; the Uniform Guide to Filings and the CJP 27 form page both omit it. Fee left null rather than guessed.

Whether a c. 208, § 23 restoration must be requested before the divorce judgment enters is not stated in the statute, and I found no primary source resolving it. Left null.

Sources for this page

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.