The rest of what we have written about Utah. Every figure is quoted from Utah’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Changing your name back in Utah
Whether you can get your former name back in the divorce itself — and what it costs in Utah if you miss that moment.
See a different stateUtah
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 Utah-specific.
The short version5 points · tap one to jump to it
- Restoring your name in the divorce — The statutory restoration in Utah has to be requested while the case is open.
- If the decree is already final — Per the Utah State Courts self-help site, the decree must itself have ordered the name change, spelling out both the married name and the restored name; you cannot go back and modify an existing decree retroactively to add it.
- 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 Utah — Utah has no domestic-violence publication exemption because Utah has no publication requirement to be exempted from.
- 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 — The statutory restoration in Utah has to be requested while the case is open.
- If the decree is already final — Per the Utah State Courts self-help site, the decree must itself have ordered the name change, spelling out both the married name and the restored name; you cannot go back and modify an existing decree retroactively to add it.
- 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 Utah — Utah has no domestic-violence publication exemption because Utah has no publication requirement to be exempted from.
- Every state
In this subject 6
Utah restores a former name through the divorce itself, under .
Utah has no statute authorizing a divorce court to restore a former name. The domestic relations law was recodified into Title 81 (Utah Domestic Relations Code) effective September 1, 2024, and Title 81 contains no name-restoration section; the old Title 30 divorce chapter had none either. The practice rests on the divorce court’s general equitable power to include the change in the decree, and the Utah State Courts’ own self-help guidance confirms it: if you are still married and planning to divorce, ‘you may request a name change within the divorce papers,’ and if you are already divorced the decree must have ‘included a specific name change order listing both your married name and restored name’ for it to take effect.
Who may ask: the party changing the name
The statutory restoration in Utah 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
Per the Utah State Courts self-help site, the decree must itself have ordered the name change, spelling out both the married name and the restored name; you cannot go back and modify an existing decree retroactively to add it. If it is not in the decree, you file a fresh Title 42 chapter 1 petition in district court – which brings with it the one-year county residency requirement that the divorce route does not have.
Authority: Utah Code 42-1-1, 42-1-2, 42-1-3
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: Utah Code 42-1-1 (petition and contents), 42-1-2 (notice of hearing; order of change), 42-1-3 (effect of proceedings)
- Court: District Court of the county where the petitioner resides
- Filing fee: not separately listed on the state’s official fee schedule – see notes (schedule dated 2026-05-06 (date of the current utcourts.gov fee schedule))
- Residency: Utah Code 42-1-1(1)(c): the petition must state ‘that the natural person has been a bona fide resident of the county for the year immediately prior to the filing of the petition.’ One full year in the specific county, not merely in Utah.
- Publication: There is no mandatory newspaper publication. Utah Code 42-1-2 leaves notice entirely to the judge: ‘The court shall order what, if any, notice shall be given of the hearing, and after the giving of such notice, if any, may order the change of name as requested, upon proof in open court of the allegations of the petition and that there exists proper cause for granting the same.’ The phrase ‘what, if any’ means a Utah judge can dispense with notice altogether.
- Background check: No fingerprints and no criminal history record are required of an ordinary adult petitioner. Utah instead uses two targeted criminal-record rules. Utah Code 42-1-1(2): ‘A natural person who is an offender, as that term is defined in Section 64-13-1, may not file a petition in district court to change the natural person’s name’ – an outright bar on people in Department of Corrections custody or under its supervision. Utah Code 42-1-1(3)(a): a petitioner ‘shall indicate on the petition whether the individual is required to register under Title 53, Chapter 29, Sex, Kidnap, and Child Abuse Offender Registry,’ and (3)(b) the court ‘may request additional information’ from such a registrant to make the determination described in Utah Code 53-29-303(3). Utah Code 42-1-1(4) applies the criminal falsification statutes (Title 76, Chapter 8, Part 5) to the petition.
- Hearing: required
Official forms
What catches people out in Utah
Utah has no domestic-violence publication exemption because Utah has no publication requirement to be exempted from. Utah Code 42-1-2 goes further than most states in the survivor’s favor: notice is entirely discretionary (‘what, if any, notice shall be given’), so a judge can grant a name change with no notice at all. Utah does not, however, have a survivor-specific record-sealing statute for a plain name change – UCJA Rule 4-202.02 classifies name change records as private, with fuller privacy reserved for sex-designation changes and for name changes combined with a sex-designation change (case history and record of public hearings remain public for adults). A survivor in an active protective order case can also ask the court to safeguard location, contact and identity information under that rule.
Utah’s official district court fee schedule (effective May 6, 2026, under Utah Code 78A-2-301) lists a $375.00 general original-complaint fee under Subsection (1)(a) and a $350.00 divorce fee under Subsection (1)(b)(iv), but does not list a name-change fee. This JSON does not assert that the $375 general fee applies, because the schedule does not say so.
Utah Code 42-1-3 provides that name change proceedings ‘shall in no manner affect any legal action or proceeding then pending, or any right, title or interest whatsoever’ – a name change does not shed debts or obligations.
Utah Code 42-1-2 has not been amended since 1953; 42-1-3 likewise. The modern content of the chapter is all in the 42-1-1 criminal-record provisions.
Sources for this page
- Restoration in the divorce: https://www.utcourts.gov/en/self-help/case-categories/family/name-change/sex-change.html
- Separate name-change petition: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title42/C42_1800010118000101.pdf
- Filing fee: https://www.utcourts.gov/en/self-help/legal-help/procedures/fees.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://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title42/Chapter1/42-1-S1.html – returns only the site navigation shell; the statutory text was read instead from the official chapter PDF at le.utah.gov
Found an error? Tell us — it goes on the corrections page with the date and how long it was live.