Child Name Change - Illinois Residents
Child Name Change Service in IL - Information & Petition Service
Whether your child is a newborn, or nearly an adult now, getting your child’s legal name to be exactly the right one for the future…that’s really important. Getting a legal name change for a child can be a complicated process, difficult to do, and it’s not free. But it’s one of the most important parts of a child’s identity, family connection, and way of being in the world. Getting it right is a big deal.
EZ Name Change does Children’s Name Change Requests every day. We know how important this is for growing up – school, medical, travel, family and friends. Getting the documents right, knowing the timing and deadlines. There’s a lot to focus on. With EZ Full Service, you don’t have to waste time and money on trial and error. Get the information you need to be comfortable. Then let us help you make this happen.
For a Child Name Change, one parent can be the Requester. The other parent must either consent or be accounted for (several ways to do that). Your Filing must be done correctly for the Circuit Court where you live now. Publishing must also be done correctly, and proof of it provided in proper form. Below, you can find answers to the most frequently asked questions, about how to do these things, the Costs, Time Frames, proper Courts, processes and Court Forms, etc. At EZ Name Change, Child Name Change Specialists can answer other questions if you don’t see your answers below. Only EZ Name Change has Full Service for Child Name Change.
Getting your Child’s Name Change is a very important event for all the growing up years. You need to be sure everything is done, done right, in the most stress free way. We get that.
Illinois Child Name Change
Information and Help – Under 18 Yrs Old
For Child Name Change, prepare a collection of Forms called (collectively) a Name Change Request, or Request for Name Change (Minor Children). It’s not simple, but it can be done and you can have Full Service help by EZ Name Change, or another professional service or attorney.
File the Request with the County Circuit Court for where you live now. The Court will set a Hearing for Your Child(ren)’s Name Change and then the required publishing and the a non-consenting or non-attending parent’s documentation must be properly attended to. (If the other parent agrees to the name change and will attend the Hearing, no additional documentation process is needed for the other parent).
Before the Hearing date, you must have an authorized newspaper run legal notices of the Hearing once a week for 3 consecutive weeks. If there is a non-consenting parent, you also need to get that parent’s Consent, Acknowledgement, Served (with Proof of Service or Publication), or document his/her death or abandonment, depending on which circumstance fits your situation.
Usually, if you have everything prepared and processed correctly, and there are no objections, the judge can approve Your Child’s Name Change at the Hearing. If Granted, you get your Certified Copy(s) of the Final Order (Court Order) about a week or so after you get your signed Order in the mail. The Certified Copy is what you use to update your child’s ID and Official Records.
It takes most people 5 to 8 minutes to complete the Questionnaire (Get Started).
Then, it usually takes about 2-3 months to get your Child Name Change Court Order signed, upon approval. It can take longer if your Request is done wrong or incompletely, or if one parent isn’t cooperating or if the judge has other concerns to be addressed.
The Order For Name Change (Minor Children) is effective the moment it’s signed by the judge. However, you’ll need to get a Certified Copy of it in your hands in order to update your child’s ID and Official Records. The moment you give the school, passport office, or social security a Certified Copy of your Order For Name Change, you can expect them to update Your Child’s Records right then.
It will take just a couple of days to change your Child’s ID and Official Records, depending on how much time you can spend on it. If you want to get an
Amended birth certificate, that can take additional time.
The sooner you start, the sooner it will all be done!
- EZ Name Change Service fee = $190
- Total cost = $604 for Child Name Change with Full Service (avg, depending on County).
Summary of Costs
- $324 for Court Filing. Courts charge between $178 and $388, depending on County.
- $90 for required advertising (costs range from $50 to $300, depending on County.
- $190 for your EZ Full Service Name Change – Flat Fee for any County.
See this page for more details about Child Name Change Costs – Illinois Residents - $10 for Certified Copies of your Final Order Changing Name of Minor (4 of them at $2.50each).
There may be other costs to deal with the other parent:
- $15-$75 to serve papers on a non-consenting parent, if needed (single parent or Legal Guardian Requests only).
- $90 for an extra Ad, can be more or less depending on County, to Serve missing non-consenting parent in some situations.
- $10 per Notarized signature, one will be needed if consenting parent won’t be attending the approval Hearing.
Courts can waive your court fees if you qualify and complete all the Waiver Request pages correctly. All Illinois Name Change Courts allow Child Name Change Requests to be submitted with a request for court fees to be waived. If you can’t afford to pay the Court Filing and Certified Copy charges, You can submit an Application for Waiver of Court Fees and request those costs be waived. The court makes that decision. Submit all the right forms, fully completed, to have the Court consider your Request to Waive Fees. The Court requires a properly completed Request before they will consider Granting a Request to Waive Court Fees.
With our Full Service, EZ Name Change will help you provide and prepare all your Fee Waiver Application court forms, without any extra charges. You just need to let us know you want to apply for Court Fee Waivers After you submit your Name Change Request information through our Questionnaire (Start Now)
For Child Name Change, your truthful reason is almost certainly good enough. You just need to write it out and put it in the Request correctly. The valid reasons for name change are almost unlimited. Just put your reason in your own words, and it should be fine.
If you are seeking a name change that will cause harm, injury, confusion or fraud, your judge may not Grant your Request. Court’s won’t likely allow you to get a name that is not in your child’s best interests, is intended to mislead or be generally confusing, or that incites violence. You may expect to have a problem if you want your child to adopt, as a name, a racial slur, a threat, or an obscenity. It’s very rare for any Name Change Request for a Minor to have any of these types of problems.
It’s more important to get all your Request documents and processes done right and completely, than it is to get your Reason worded exactly correctly.
You will be using the most convenient Circuit Court in the County where you live now. Many people think, wrongly, that you need to file a Name Change Request where the person changing names was born. A Child’s Name Change Request usually MUST, and can always be filed in the county where the Requesting Parent with a Minor Child is living now.
You may need records changed in other states or countries. But you must first get your court order. A Certified Copy of the Court Order Order For Name Change (Minor Children) ) is honored everywhere in Illinois, everywhere throughout the United States and Worldwide.
You just need accurate information, from your Child(ren)’s birth certificate(s) and your photo ID. You will need those documents at the Hearing, but we won’t need them to prepare your Request documents for your signatures before Court Filing.
To start, you will also need to know information about the other parent: Name, whereabouts, consenting or not. Depending on those answers, further information, documentation or actions may be necessary. Our Questionnaire system (Start Now) will prompt you for each of the questions we need you to answer, so we can prepare your documents correctly.
Your judge will want to know if the other parent agrees or objects to the name change and, if objecting…what is the other information about that parent’s status. If a parent does not consent or object, your judge may want to know if that parent can, or cannot, be Officially Noticed. When we know those facts, we’ll provide you with the completed documents for your situation.
Oh…and, before you begin, you should know exactly what your child’s new legal name will be:)
One more thing, it won’t happen unless you actually Start Now,…sometime. Nothing will change unless you begin the process!. You can do that in less than 10 minutes with EZ Name Change Full Service. It’s about time, don’t you think? It’s worth it!
Yes.
In this process, you can Change any of your Child’s Names through the Legal Name Change Court Request process. Some people want to Change a single letter of their Child’s Name. Others want to change the entire Name. The legal process is the same, but you decide what your child’s proposed New Legal Name will be.
Most Parents use Name Change to Change a Child’s Last Name, after a change in marriage or relationship of the parents. But many also Change just their Child’s Middle Name, changing it completely or adding a second middle name, etc. Still other Parents Change just their Child’s First Names, or the First AND Last Names. You can change any part, or the entire Legal Name if that’s the right decision for your child.
Whether your child is a newborn, toddler, middle schooler or approaching adulthood, getting the name exactly right is VERY important. Here are additional details about the costs for changing a child’s last name, middle, first, or any combination of those names.
Call (818 505-6189) or Contact Us. We’re Name Change Specialists and love to help. We have probably answered the same questions for other parents before. If you would rather not talk to us directly, look around in this website and read about Legal Name Change for Illinois residents.
If you need to keep the Name Change Request information secret due to family violence, discrimination or other concerns for Your Child, you can make a Motion To Waive Notice & Publication. Your judge will decide. If you believe your situation requires that type of treatment, let us know and, with our Full Service, we’ll help you document it in Your Child’s Request.
Divorce, itself, isn’t a factor in the requirements for changing a child’s name. The process to change a child’s legal name requires that either both parents consent about the Name Change, OR that the non-consenting parent be Officially Notified and given a chance to object to the Name Change, if it’s reasonably possible to do that (your judge will decide if that condition is satisfied). If a parent with parental rights objects to the Name Change, the judge may consider the request and objection, and decide whether to Grant or Deny the Request.
If both parents agree on the Child’s Name Change, both parents can sign Consent Forms. If one parent agrees, but is unable to sign the Consent Form, you can Serve the other parent to satisfy that requirement for your judge to see. EZ Name Change can assist with Consent Forms and/or documents and the process to Serve the other parent. If the other parent cannot be found, we’ll help you request that you be allowed to Serve by Publication to satisfy that requirement.
If the other parent’s parental rights have been terminated, let us know that in your Request and we’ll help you document that condition for the judge. If the other parent is deceased, say that in the space provided in our Questionnaire, and the requirement to Serve the other Parent won’t apply.
It’s rare for a non-consenting parent to object to a child’s name change Request, even when the other parent is difficult to deal with otherwise. If the other parent is participating in your child’s life and objects to the change of name, you may want to try and come to an agreement with the other parent before proceeding with legal name change (as a practical consideration). Whether or not the other parent objects formally, the judge will decide your name change case.
When EZ Name Change helps you in changing your child’s name, or any part(s) of a child’s name with Full Service, the Request is prepared and supported properly. Call us with your details if you’re not sure about how to proceed and we can give you additional information to help you with your particular situation.
Yes, but it’s rare.
The two main reasons why a Request might be denied are:
- You didn’t correctly provide all the documents required or follow all the required steps and procedures.
- One parent objects and the judge decides, after consideration of all the documents and statements, that the Name Change isn’t what’s best overall.
It’s extremely rare for a child’s name change petition to be denied if everything was done correctly and both parents agree or 1 parent agrees and the other doesn’t object.
Biggest reason for Denying a Child’s Name Change
If both parents are actively involved in the child’s life, with custody and/or child support, and if one parent formally objects to the name change…that’s the most likely type of situation where the name change judge may not Grant the Request. A judge is free to deny any Request for Change of a Child’s Legal Name if the judge thinks the child’s best interests would be negatively affected, or for any other reason too. BUT, the vast majority of child name change petitions are granted. At least that’s the way it goes for the Requests we help with.
When one parent is missing, you’re probably going to be allowed to change your child’s name. A judge will decide. However, you have to do everything about the Request and the Request Process correctly. So, learn how changing a child’s legal name is done or you can let EZ Name Change help you, with Full Service, to get it done right.
If the non-consenting parent, whose parental rights aren’t terminated, objects to the Name Change, the judge may Grant or Deny the Request based on all the factors involved. Your Name Change judge considers your Family Court Custody Order if you have one, abandonment (if that applies), or if the other parent is deceased. The Name Change judge may also consider testimony or other documents related to what’s best for the child. There’s a big difference if your child is 10 months old, and the other parent is missing, than if your child is 16 years old and the other parent has been gone for many years. Expect your judge to be looking at your whole situation.
It’s best if the Requesting parent can get the agreement of the non-consenting parent. That’s often not possible. Most single parents are successful in Changing their Child’s Name, even with a non-consenting parent totally out of the picture. You just have to follow all the required steps and provide the necessary documentation. You may have to Serve the other parent, if possible, or Serve by Publication if not. You just need to do everything right and be persistent. We can help you sort it all out correctly, if you want.
This is important. EZ Name Change does Legal Name Change everyday, and will be happy to assist you through the process.
EZ Name Change Illinois
Providing Services in All 102 Illinois Counties
Only EZ Name Change Specializes in Legal Name Change for Illinois residents of 6 months or longer. We are Name Change Specialists. We have Full Service Name Change help available in all of Illinois’ 102 Counties.
