The rest of what we have written about Montana. Every figure is quoted from Montana’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Changing your name back in Montana
Whether you can get your former name back in the divorce itself — and what it costs in Montana if you miss that moment.
See a different stateMontana
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 Montana-specific.
Restoring your name in the divorce
Montana restores a former name through the divorce itself, under Mont. Code Ann. § 40-4-108(5).
“Upon request by a party whose marriage is dissolved or declared invalid, the court shall order the party’s maiden or birth name or a former name restored.”
How much choice the judge has: mandatory on request – the statute says the court ‘shall order’ the name restored
Who may ask: the party changing the name
If the decree is already final
Section 40-4-108(5) is phrased in the past tense – ‘a party whose marriage IS DISSOLVED or declared invalid’ – and sets no deadline, which reads as though a request could be made after the decree. But the provision sits in the section titled ‘Decree’, and I found no primary source confirming that a Montana court will entertain the request after the decree is final. The route I can document with certainty is the ordinary Title 27, Chapter 31 name-change petition in district court, which does carry the four-week publication requirement.
Authority: Mont. Code Ann. §§ 27-31-101, 27-31-201
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: Mont. Code Ann. §§ 27-31-101 to 27-31-205 (petition: § 27-31-101; hearing, notice and safety: § 27-31-201)
- Court: District Court (county of residence)
- Filing fee: $90.00
- Residency: ‘All applications for change of names must be made to the district court of the county where the person whose name is proposed to be changed resides’ (§ 27-31-101). No minimum durational residency is stated.
- Publication: Mont. Code Ann. § 27-31-201(1): ‘Except as provided in subsections (2) and (3), notice of the time and place of hearing the petition must be published for 4 successive weeks in some newspaper published in the county, if a newspaper is printed in the county. If a newspaper is not printed in the county, a copy of the notice must be posted in at least three public places in the county for 4 successive weeks.’ The Montana Judicial Branch adult name-change instructions describe this as publishing ‘one day each week for 4 weeks in a row.’
- Background check: No fingerprints and no criminal background check are required of an ordinary adult petitioner. Two special rules exist: (a) to proceed on a sealed-record basis the judge must be satisfied the petitioner ‘is not attempting to avoid debt or to hide a criminal record’ (§ 27-31-201(3)); and (b) a petitioner committed to or supervised by the Department of Corrections or incarcerated in a state prison must serve the petition on the Department, which must make reasonable efforts to contact any victim (§ 27-31-201(4)-(5)).
- Hearing: required
Official forms
- Changing Your Name as an Adult (instructions and forms)
- Changing Your Name When Your Safety Is at Risk (sealed-record packet)
- Montana Judicial Branch name change forms index
- Adult Name Change Packet (.docx)
What catches people out in Montana
MONTANA HAS A SAFETY EXEMPTION FROM PUBLICATION AND IT WAS STRENGTHENED IN 2025. Mont. Code Ann. § 27-31-201(3): ‘The court may allow a petition to proceed on a sealed-record basis when probable cause is shown that the safety of the petitioner is at risk and the judge is satisfied that the petitioner is not attempting to avoid debt or to hide a criminal record. The request to proceed on a sealed-record basis must be set forth in the petition. All papers and records pertaining to the sealed-record petition must be kept as a permanent record of the court and withheld from inspection unless the judge denies the request…’ Section 27-31-201 was amended by Ch. 354, L. 2025, so the version quoted is the 2025 code.
It is a sealed-record mechanism rather than a bare publication waiver – the whole file is withheld from inspection, not just the newspaper notice skipped. The Montana Judicial Branch publishes a dedicated packet for it: ‘Changing Your Name When Your Safety Is at Risk.’
The $90 figure is the statutory clerk-of-district-court fee at commencement of an action under § 25-1-201(1)(a); the statute does not carry an effective date on the page, so fee_effective_date is null. Counties may add statutory surcharges, so confirm the total with the clerk.
must_request_before_final is left null: the statute imposes no deadline and its wording arguably permits a later request, but I found no primary source confirming post-decree practice, and guessing either way would be wrong.
Sources for this page
- Restoration in the divorce: https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0400/chapter_0040/part_0010/section_0080/0400-0040-0010-0080.html
- Restoring it after the decree: https://courts.mt.gov/Forms/Adult_Name_Change_3_2_20261.pdf
- Separate name-change petition: https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0270/chapter_0310/part_0020/section_0010/0270-0310-0020-0010.html
- Filing fee: https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0250/chapter_0010/part_0020/section_0010/0250-0010-0020-0010.html
Sources we could not reach when this page was built, listed so you know what was not checked rather than assuming it was: https://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/… (leg.mt.gov redirects to mca.legmt.gov; the mca.legmt.gov URLs above are the ones actually read)
Found an error? Tell us — it goes on the corrections page with the date and how long it was live.