More on Vermont

The rest of what we have written about Vermont. Every figure is quoted from Vermont’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.

Changing your name back in Vermont

Whether you can get your former name back in the divorce itself — and what it costs in Vermont if you miss that moment.

See a different stateVermont
AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming
The federal half is the same everywhere

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 Vermont-specific.

Restore it in the divorceYes15 V.S.A. § 558
After the decree is finalYes separate statutory name-change petition
Newspaper publicationNot required No newspaper publication is required for an adult name change. Chapter 13 of Title 15…
Background checkYes No fingerprints, but Vermont runs a mandatory registry check on every adult filing. 15…
Separate petition fee$150.00Confirmed from an official schedule.
CourtProbate Division of the Superior… 15 V.S.A. § 811 requires the instrument to be acknowledged before ‘the judge of the…

Restoring your name in the divorce

Vermont restores a former name through the divorce itself, under 15 V.S.A. § 558.

“Spouse allowed to take prior name. Upon granting a divorce, unless good cause is shown to the contrary, the court shall allow a spouse to resume the spouse’s prior name or the name of a former spouse.”

How much choice the judge has: mandatory on request unless good cause is shown to the contrary – the court ‘shall allow’ the resumption, and the burden of showing ‘good cause’ to refuse falls on whoever opposes it

Who may ask: the party changing the name

Ask in the divorce — but missing it is not fatal

The statutory restoration in Vermont 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

The Vermont Judiciary’s own guidance frames § 558 as something you request in the divorce case: ‘To change your name because of a divorce, you can ask the court to restore you to a former name in the papers asking for the divorce. If granted, your new name will be included in the divorce decree.’ If the decree does not carry the change, the fallback is the ordinary adult name-change filing in the Probate Division of the Superior Court under 15 V.S.A. ch. 13 – a $150 filing fee and a hearing.

Authority: 15 V.S.A. §§ 811-817; Vermont Rule of Probate Procedure 80.6

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: 15 V.S.A. § 811 (procedure; form), § 813 (filing of instrument), § 816 (amendment of birth certificate), § 817 (consultation of Sex Offender Registry); Vermont Rule of Probate Procedure 80.6
  • Court: Probate Division of the Superior Court, in the county of the petitioner’s legal physical residence
  • Filing fee: $150.00
  • Residency: 15 V.S.A. § 811 requires the instrument to be acknowledged before ‘the judge of the Probate Division of the Superior Court of the district in which the person resides,’ and § 813 requires it to be filed in the Probate Division where the person resides. The Vermont Judiciary describes this as ‘the county of your legal physical residence.’ No minimum duration of residence is set by statute.
  • Publication: No newspaper publication is required for an adult name change. Chapter 13 of Title 15 contains no publication provision, and the Vermont Judiciary’s step-by-step adult name-change instructions have no publication step: you file the petition, pay $150, and ‘the court will schedule a hearing with the judge, and will notify you of the hearing date by mail.’ Publication appears in Vermont name-change practice only as a last-resort alternative method of SERVING a non-consenting parent in a MINOR’s name change, not as public notice in an adult case.
  • Background check: No fingerprints, but Vermont runs a mandatory registry check on every adult filing. 15 V.S.A. § 817: ‘Upon receipt of a change-of-name form submitted pursuant to section 811 of this title, the Probate Court shall request the Department of Public Safety to determine whether the person’s name appears on the Sex Offender Registry established by 13 V.S.A. § 5402.’ If the person is on the registry, ‘the Probate Court shall not permit the person to change his or her name unless it finds, after permitting the Department of Public Safety to appear, that there is a compelling purpose for doing so.’ This is a court-initiated check, not something the petitioner has to obtain and file. There is no general criminal history record requirement.
  • Hearing: required

Official forms

What catches people out in Vermont

15 V.S.A. § 558 is broader than a ‘maiden name’ statute: it lets a spouse resume ‘the spouse’s prior name OR the name of a former spouse.’ Someone on a second divorce can go back to the surname from the first marriage, not only to a birth name.
Vermont’s adult name change is structurally odd – § 811 is written as an ‘instrument’ you sign, seal and acknowledge before the Probate judge on a statutory form, not as an adversarial petition. In practice the court still schedules a hearing.
The $150 fee is the same for an adult and for a minor’s name change; a fee waiver application is available.
The court may also ask for a certified copy of your birth certificate and a photo ID, and requirements vary by county – the Judiciary tells filers to check with their own probate court.
Probate records in Vermont are generally not sealed. The Vermont Commission on Women’s guidance is blunt about it: ‘Probate records typically are not sealed. You need to check with the clerk in the probate division if you have concerns about confidentiality.’ Sealing applies to gender-marker birth-certificate amendments at Vital Records, not to the name-change case file.
Worth knowing

Vermont has no domestic-violence exemption from publication in its adult name-change statute – but it also has no publication requirement, so there is nothing to be exempted from. What Vermont lacks, and what matters for a survivor, is any statutory sealing or confidentiality provision for the name-change case itself. A survivor with safety concerns has to raise them with the probate clerk directly; the statute gives the court no express sealing authority for name changes.

15 V.S.A. § 817 (added 2009) makes Vermont one of the states that runs a criminal-registry check automatically on every adult name-change filing. Common online advice that says ‘Vermont requires no background check’ is only half right – the petitioner does not have to produce one, but the court has to request one from the Department of Public Safety.

15 V.S.A. §§ 814 and 815 are repealed (1979 and 2003 respectively) – do not cite them.

Name changes go to the PROBATE Division, not the Family Division, even though the statute lives in Title 15 (Domestic Relations). A divorce-decree restoration under § 558 goes to the Family Division. Two different courts, same title of the statutes.

Vermont publishes a specific trick for getting a copy of your own name-change order later: on the Request for Access to Court Record form, write the case name as ‘In re [New Name] (formerly [Old Name])’ and the case type as ‘Name Change.’

Sources for this page

Found an error? Tell us — it goes on the corrections page with the date and how long it was live.

Every state

ALAlabamaAKAlaskaAZArizonaARArkansasCACaliforniaCOColoradoCTConnecticutDEDelawareFLFloridaGAGeorgiaHIHawaiiIDIdahoILIllinoisINIndianaIAIowaKSKansasKYKentuckyLALouisianaMEMaineMDMarylandMAMassachusettsMIMichiganMNMinnesotaMSMississippiMOMissouriMTMontanaNENebraskaNVNevadaNHNew HampshireNJNew JerseyNMNew MexicoNYNew YorkNCNorth CarolinaNDNorth DakotaOHOhioOKOklahomaOROregonPAPennsylvaniaRIRhode IslandSCSouth CarolinaSDSouth DakotaTNTennesseeTXTexasUTUtahVTVermontVAVirginiaWAWashingtonWVWest VirginiaWIWisconsinWYWyoming
Sources last checked30 August 2026
Page published30 August 2026
What this means. This is when the sources on this page were last read against their originals — statutes, court rules, official schedules — taken from the date this page was built from its sources. It is not the date the page was last edited. Adding a link or fixing a typo does not move it; re-reading the statute does. Law changes without notice, so treat anything time-sensitive as needing a fresh check. Where we get something wrong we publish it at thecusp.app/corrections with the date, what changed, and how long the error was live.