The rest of what we have written about Minnesota. Every figure is quoted from Minnesota’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Changing your name back in Minnesota
Whether you can get your former name back in the divorce itself — and what it costs in Minnesota if you miss that moment.
See a different stateMinnesota
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 Minnesota-specific.
Restoring your name in the divorce
Minnesota restores a former name through the divorce itself, under Minn. Stat. § 518.27.
“[I]n the final decree of dissolution or legal separation the court shall, if requested by a party, change the name of that party to another name as the party requests.” The court may deny the request if it finds the change is intended to defraud or mislead, and the new name must be designated in the final decree. The court must also notify the parties that use of a different surname without complying with section 259.13, where applicable, is a gross misdemeanor.
How much choice the judge has: mandatory on request, unless the court finds an intent to defraud or mislead
Who may ask: the party changing the name
The statutory restoration in Minnesota 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
Section 518.27 ties the name change to the FINAL DECREE (‘in the final decree of dissolution or legal separation’). If it was not requested and put in the decree, the documented route is the ordinary chapter 259 name-change application in district court. A motion to amend the decree is not addressed in the statute and I did not find a primary source authorizing it, so it is not asserted here.
Authority: Minn. Stat. § 259.10
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: Minn. Stat. §§ 259.10, 259.11, 259.13
- Court: District Court (county of residence)
- Filing fee: $310.00 base, plus a county law library fee – see notes
- Residency: “A person who shall have resided in this state for six months may apply to the district court” – and must apply in the county of residence (§ 259.10).
- Publication: No newspaper publication is required. Chapter 259 contains no publication or public-notice requirement for an adult name change; the safeguard instead is personal appearance and proof of identity by two witnesses under § 259.10.
- Background check: No fingerprints are required of the applicant. However, Minn. Stat. § 259.11(b) requires the COURT to determine whether the applicant has a criminal history in Minnesota or any other state and, if so, to report the name change to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension within ten days. Section 259.11(c) exempts name changes made under a marriage license (§ 517.08), under a dissolution decree (§ 518.27), and under § 259.14 from that reporting. Separately, Minn. Stat. § 259.13 requires a person with a felony conviction (Minnesota, another state, or federal) to serve notice of the application on the prosecuting authority that obtained the conviction (and on that state’s attorney general for an out-of-state conviction) and file proof of service; if the prosecuting authority objects within 30 days the court must deny the change unless the applicant proves by clear and convincing evidence that the request is not based on intent to defraud or mislead, is made in good faith, will not injure any person, and will not compromise public safety – except that the court must grant it if denial would infringe a constitutional right.
- Hearing: required
Official forms
- Instructions – Application for Name Change and Other Relief (NAM101)
- Name change forms and instructions packet
What catches people out in Minnesota
Minnesota requires no newspaper publication for an adult name change – contrary to the common assumption that every state does.
Because there is no publication requirement, there is no publication exemption for domestic violence survivors. The closest statutory safety provision is in § 259.10: ‘If the court determines that the name change for an individual is made in connection with the individual’s participation in a witness and victim protection program, the court shall order that the court records of the name change are not accessible to the public.’ That is narrower than a general DV exemption – it is tied to a witness/victim protection program, not to being a survivor.
The Minnesota Judicial Branch fee page gives $310 as the base civil first-paper fee under Minn. Stat. § 357.021, subd. 2(1), and states that counties add a law library fee; it does not state an effective date, so fee_effective_date is null. Hennepin County District Court’s own fees page lists a $322.00 civil court filing fee.
mncourts.gov’s NAM101 instruction PDF is disallowed by robots for automated fetching, so the fee and process details above come from the statutes and the court fee pages rather than the instruction sheet.
Sources for this page
- Restoration in the divorce: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/518.27
- Restoring it after the decree: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/259.10
- Filing fee: https://mncourts.gov/help-topics/court-fees/district-court-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://mncourts.gov/_media/migration/courtforms/name-change/nam101.pdf?ext=.pdf
Found an error? Tell us — it goes on the corrections page with the date and how long it was live.