The rest of what we have written about Michigan. Every figure is quoted from Michigan’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Changing your name back in Michigan
Whether you can get your former name back in the divorce itself — and what it costs in Michigan if you miss that moment.
See a different stateMichigan
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 Michigan-specific.
The short version5 points · tap one to jump to it
- Restoring your name in the divorce — Michigan restores a former name through the divorce itself, under Mich. Comp.
- If the decree is already final — MCL 552.391 operates only 'whenever a decree of divorce is granted' – it is a power exercised at the moment the judgment is entered, and it contains no post-judgment mechanism.
- 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.
- What catches people out in Michigan — SAFETY EXEMPTION IS MANDATORY, not DISCRETIONARY, AND CARRIES A PRESUMPTION.
- Every state
In this subject 6
Restoring your name in the divorce
The short version5 points · tap one to jump to it
- Restoring your name in the divorce — Michigan restores a former name through the divorce itself, under Mich. Comp.
- If the decree is already final — MCL 552.391 operates only 'whenever a decree of divorce is granted' – it is a power exercised at the moment the judgment is entered, and it contains no post-judgment mechanism.
- 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.
- What catches people out in Michigan — SAFETY EXEMPTION IS MANDATORY, not DISCRETIONARY, AND CARRIES A PRESUMPTION.
- Every state
In this subject 6
Michigan restores a former name through the divorce itself, under Mich. Comp. Laws Sec. 552.391.
The whole section, verbatim: “The circuit courts of this state, whenever a decree of divorce is granted, may, at the instance of the woman, whether complainant or defendant, decree to restore to her her birth name, or the surname she legally bore prior to her marriage to the husband in the divorce action, or allow her to adopt another surname if the change is not sought with any fraudulent or evil intent.” The act is captioned “CHANGE OF NAME OF DIVORCED WOMAN” (1905 PA 299) and has not been amended since 1975 PA 40.
How much choice the judge has: discretionary – the statute says the court ‘may … decree to restore’, not shall. It also conditions an entirely new surname on the change not being ‘sought with any fraudulent or evil intent.’
Who may ask: the party changing the name – and note that the statute as written says only ‘the woman, whether complainant or defendant’
The statutory restoration in Michigan 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
MCL 552.391 operates only ‘whenever a decree of divorce is granted’ – it is a power exercised at the moment the judgment is entered, and it contains no post-judgment mechanism. No official Michigan source we found authorizes reopening or amending a divorce judgment after entry solely to add name restoration, and MCR 3.211, which lists what a divorce judgment must contain, says nothing about names. So the reliable route after the judgment is final is a fresh petition under MCL 711.1 in the family division of the circuit court of the county where you now live – which brings with it the one-year county residency rule, the filing fee, and publication unless nonpublication is granted. Michigan has no post-decree ex parte shortcut of the kind Georgia added in 2024.
Authority: Mich. Comp. Laws Sec. 711.1
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: Mich. Comp. Laws Sec. 711.1 (petition and standard), Sec. 711.2 (clerk’s fee), Sec. 711.3 (nonpublication and confidential record); MCR 3.613 (procedure); form PC 51 also cites MCL 333.2872 for the resulting birth-record change
- Court: Family division of the circuit court for the county of residence. MCL 711.1(1) says so in terms, and SCAO form PC 51 is captioned ‘JUDICIAL CIRCUIT – FAMILY DIVISION’. The forms still carry ‘PC’ (probate court) numbers for historical reasons and some county websites still say ‘probate court’, but the statute and the current form both place the case in the circuit court’s family division.
- Filing fee: $175.00 – but this is a county-collected court fee, so confirm with your own county before filing. (schedule dated Berrien County’s name-change packet cover sheet (form PC 931, revised 3/2025) states ‘Filing Fee $175.00’ plus a $12.00 certified letter fee and the newspaper’s own publication charge. Calhoun County Circuit Court independently states ‘$175.00 which must be paid to the Court at the time of filing’, and Oceana County states ‘Currently the filing fee for a petition to change a name is $175.00.’ All three retrieved 2026-08-30. Statutorily, MCL 711.2 directs the judge to collect a $10.00 fee for the use of the county, and MCL 600.880(1) sets a $150.00 filing fee for commencing a proceeding; we do not know how the $175.00 total is made up, only that three county courts publish it.)
- Residency: One year in the COUNTY. MCL 711.1(1): the court ‘may enter an order to change the name of an individual who has been a resident of the county for not less than 1 year’. PC 51 restates it: ‘Each person for whom a name change is sought has been a resident of the county for at least one year.’
- Publication: Publication is the default and the court orders it. MCR 3.613(B): ‘Unless otherwise provided in this rule, the court must order publication of the notice of the proceeding to change a name in a newspaper in the county where the action is pending.’ MCL 711.1(2) likewise: ‘Except as provided in section 3 of this chapter, the court shall also order publication as provided by supreme court rule.’ The published notice must give the petitioner’s name, the subject’s current name, the proposed name, and the time, date and place of the hearing if there is one – or else the deadline for a person with the same or a similar name to move to intervene. If the court has waived fees under MCR 2.002 it must pay the publication cost itself, and any record of that payment is nonpublic. Calhoun County’s practical gloss: the notice runs at least 14 days before the hearing and the affidavit of publication is due at least 7 days before it.
- Background check: FINGERPRINTS ARE GONE. Public Act 229 of 2024 removed them. MCL 711.1(1) as amended now says: ‘If the petitioner has a criminal record, including, but not limited to, a charge pending against the petitioner, the petitioner shall include the criminal record in the petition. If the petitioner does not have a criminal record, the petitioner shall state, in the petition, that the petitioner does not have a criminal record. The court may use L.E.I.N. or ICHAT to determine whether there is a criminal record. The court shall bear any cost associated with the court’s use of L.E.I.N. or ICHAT, not the petitioner.’ So the obligation on the petitioner is disclosure in the petition; any records check is run by the court, at the court’s expense. The old presumption that a person with a criminal record was seeking a name change fraudulently is gone from the section. MCL 711.1(3) still requires the court to forward an order changing the name of a person with a criminal record to the State Police central records division and, where applicable, to the Department of Corrections, the county sheriff, or the court with jurisdiction over the person.
- Hearing: not required
Official forms
- PC 51, Petition for Name Change (captioned Judicial Circuit – Family Division)
- PC 51c, Petition for Name Change and Ex Parte Request for Nonpublication and Confidential Record – the safety route
- PC 50, Publication of Notice of Hearing Regarding Petition for Name Change
- PC 50c, notice form used with the nonpublication route
- PC 52, Order Following Hearing on Petition to Change Name
- SCAO memorandum, March 28, 2025 – Public Act 229 of 2024 statutory amendments for name change proceedings
- Berrien County Trial Court – Name Change packet, 18 and Over (states the $175.00 fee)
- Public Act 229 of 2024 (enrolled HB 5300) – full text
What catches people out in Michigan
SAFETY EXEMPTION IS MANDATORY, not DISCRETIONARY, AND CARRIES A PRESUMPTION. This is the strongest survivor protection of any state in this set, and it is now in the statute itself. MCL 711.3(1)(a): ‘If the court receives a petition that shows good cause, the court must order that no publication of the proceeding take place and that the record of the proceeding be confidential.’ MCL 711.3(1)(b): a petition showing good cause ‘must state the reason or reasons why the petitioner or the endangered individual fears the publication or availability of the record of the proceeding, and the court must presume that a petition shows good cause if any of the following reasons are included in the statement: (i) The petitioner or the endangered individual is a victim of an assaultive crime, domestic violence, harassment, human trafficking, or stalking. (ii) The petitioner or the endangered individual seeks to affirm their gender identity.’ MCL 711.3(1)(c): ‘The court shall not require proof of an arrest or prosecution to find that a petition shows good cause.’ MCL 711.3(2) makes it a misdemeanor for a court officer, employee or agent to divulge information from a confidential record beyond the scope of their duties, and MCL 711.3(3) exempts the confidential record from FOIA. ‘Domestic violence’ and ‘family or household member’ are defined in MCL 711.3(4), and ‘former spouse’ is expressly within ‘family or household member’.
MCR 3.613(C) mirrors the statute and adds the procedure: the court ‘must issue an ex parte order granting or denying’ the nonpublication request; if it denies it, it must issue a written order stating its reasons and telling the petitioner of the right to request a hearing, to dismiss, or to proceed with publication within 14 days; a hearing on a denial is held on the record and the petitioner must attend; and if the petitioner ultimately proceeds by publication, the court ‘must order that the record is no longer confidential.’ That last point is the one to watch: if you ask for nonpublication, lose, and go ahead by publication anyway, the court un-seals the file.
A note on one date you may see. The Michigan Legislature’s own MCL section pages for 711.1 and 711.3 print the history line as ‘Am. 2024, Act 229, Eff. Apr. 2, 2024’. That year is a typo on the legislature’s site. The enrolled act itself states: ‘Act No. 229, Public Acts of 2024, Approved by the Governor January 17, 2025, Filed with the Secretary of State January 17, 2025, EFFECTIVE DATE: April 2, 2025.’ April 2, 2025 is correct, and it matches SCAO’s March 28, 2025 memo to the courts.
MCL 552.391 is a one-section act from 1905 with no companion sections – MCL 552.392 does not exist. There is no separate Michigan statute on restoring a former name after divorce beyond this one.
The court is not the ‘Probate Court’. MCL 711.1 as amended says ‘family division of the circuit court’, MCL 711.2 says ‘judge of the family division of circuit court’, and PC 51 (3/2025) is captioned ‘JUDICIAL CIRCUIT – FAMILY DIVISION’. The PC form prefix is a legacy artifact.
The Michigan State Police published a LEIN training bulletin on name-change background checks dated March 21, 2025, consistent with a court-run LEIN/ICHAT check replacing petitioner-supplied fingerprints: https://www.michigan.gov/msp/-/media/Project/Websites/msp/cjic/lein/Other-LEIN-Information/FINAL-LEIN-Training-Bulletin—Name-Change-Background-Checks-250321-tm.pdf
TLS NOTE for whoever re-checks this: http://www.legislature.mi.gov serves only its leaf certificate and omits the DigiCert Global G2 TLS RSA SHA256 2020 CA1 intermediate, so a default trust store rejects it. Fetch the intermediate from the leaf’s own AIA URI (http://cacerts.digicert.com/DigiCertGlobalG2TLSRSASHA2562020CA1-1.crt), convert DER to PEM, append it to the CA bundle, and the site reads normally. Every MCL quotation on this page was read that way, from legislature.mi.gov itself.
Sources for this page
- Restoration in the divorce: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-552-391
- Restoring it after the decree: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-711-1
- Filing fee: https://berriencounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/16497/Name-Change-Packet-18-and-Over-PDF-?bidId=
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.courts.michigan.gov/publications/fines,-fees,-costs,-and-rates/ – the statewide court fee page is disallowed by robots.txt to automated fetching, so the $175.00 figure is sourced to three individual county courts instead; https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-600-880 and related section pages intermittently returned ‘Empty reply from server’ under rapid successive requests; they succeed when spaced out
Found an error? Tell us — it goes on the corrections page with the date and how long it was live.