Changing your name back in Oregon
Whether you can get your former name back in the divorce itself — and what it costs in Oregon if you miss that moment.
See a different stateOregon
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 Oregon-specific.
Restoring your name in the divorce
Oregon restores a former name through the divorce itself, under ORS 107.105(1)(h).
‘Whenever the court renders a judgment of marital annulment, dissolution or separation, the court may provide in the judgment: … (h) To change the name of either spouse to a name the spouse held before the marriage. The court shall order a change if it is requested by the affected party.’
How much choice the judge has: mandatory on request
Who may ask: the party changing the name
The statutory restoration in Oregon 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
ORS 107.105(1)(h) is a provision the court puts IN the judgment, so it is tied to the judgment. If it was left out, the clean route is a standalone application for change of name under ORS 33.410 in the county of residence. That is not a punishing detour in Oregon: the statutory filing fee is only $124 (ORS 21.145), there is no newspaper publication for an adult, no background check, and ORS 33.410 says the change ‘shall be granted by the court unless the court finds that the change is not consistent with the public interest.’ A motion to modify the dissolution judgment under ORS 107.135 is an alternative some practitioners use, but no primary source was found confirming a name provision can be added that way, so it is not asserted.
Authority: ORS 33.410
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: ORS 33.410 to 33.440
- Court: Circuit Court (probate court, or the circuit court where its jurisdiction has been extended under ORS 3.275) of the county in which the person resides
- Filing fee: $124.00
- Residency: File in ‘the county in which the person resides.’ No minimum duration is stated in ORS 33.410.
- Publication: No. Oregon requires no newspaper publication for an adult name change. ORS 33.420 is titled ‘Notice of application in case of minor child; exception; sealing of record in certain cases’ and its notice requirement runs only to the parents and guardians of a MINOR child: ‘Except as provided in ORS 109.360, before entering a judgment for a change of name in the case of a minor child, the court shall require that written notice be given to the parents of the child, both custodial and noncustodial, and to any legal guardian of the child.’ There is no publication provision anywhere in ORS 33.410 to 33.440. Older Oregon guides describing a published notice are describing the pre-2013 version of the statute.
- Background check: None. ORS 33.410 to 33.440 contain no criminal history check, no fingerprinting, and no sex-offender screening. The only substantive limit is the public-interest standard in ORS 33.410.
- Hearing: not required
Official forms
- Oregon Judicial Department – Name and Sex Change forms (Family Law Forms)
- ORS Chapter 33 (Change of Name, ORS 33.410-33.440) – Oregon Legislature
- ORS Chapter 107 (Provisions of judgment, ORS 107.105) – Oregon Legislature
- ORS Chapter 21 (Court fees; ORS 21.145 name change fee) – Oregon Legislature
What catches people out in Oregon
DV PUBLICATION EXEMPTION: There is nothing to exempt from – Oregon does not publish adult name changes at all. What Oregon offers instead is sealing, and it is narrower than most people expect. ORS 33.420(3)(a): ‘In a case to determine an application for change of name of a person under ORS 33.410, if an applicant who is a certified adult program participant in the Address Confidentiality Program under ORS 192.826 requests the court to seal the record of the case, the court shall seal the record of the case unless the court issues an order pursuant to a finding of good cause under ORS 192.848.’ The Address Confidentiality Program is Oregon’s program for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and human trafficking – so the protection exists, but it is gated on ACP certification rather than on a showing made to the name-change judge. A survivor who is not enrolled in the ACP has no statutory sealing right under this section.
ORS 33.420(3)(b) adds a carve-out: the sealing right ‘does not apply to an adult applicant appearing as a guardian ad litem for a minor child.’
The $124 filing fee is set by statute, not by a county schedule: ORS 21.145 (‘Simple proceeding filing fee’) applies a $124 fee to ‘(1) Applications for change of name under ORS 33.410.’ By contrast ORS 21.155 sets the domestic relations filing fee at $301 and ORS 21.135 sets the standard civil fee at $281. The amounts are as printed in the current ORS text; no separate effective date is stated in the section, so fee_effective_date is null.
ORS 33.410 sets a presumption in the applicant’s favor: ‘The change of name shall be granted by the court unless the court finds that the change is not consistent with the public interest.’
ORS 33.460(3) lets a person apply for a name change and a legal change of sex ‘at the same time and in the same proceeding,’ and under ORS 33.420(4) that combined case can be sealed on request without ACP certification.
The Oregon Judicial Department’s fee and forms pages have been reorganized and several commonly cited OJD URLs now 404; the forms link above was verified live.
Sources for this page
- Restoration in the divorce: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors107.html
- Restoring it after the decree: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors033.html
- Filing fee: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors021.html
Found an error? Tell us — it goes on the corrections page with the date and how long it was live.