There are many people who want to change their name.  In fact there are many people who have decided to be known as a different name for some reason.  Perhaps they don't like their name - many children born in the age of flower power were given names that were less than common and not at all in keeping with the ranks of power they would achieve later in life.  Perhaps their name became synonymous with a negative event or person.  Perhaps they want to move from the public spotlight into an unknown shadow. 

For most people it's enough to just tell everyone you know that from now on you want to be called x rather than y, and put up with your real name on official correspondence.  For others however, legally changing your name is a necessity; a life-changing need to distance yourself from a name that holds bad thoughts and connotations for you.  The easiest way to do this for a woman is to get married.  It's drastic, but if you're female and want to change your name, this is the quickest and least likely to be questioned way of doing it.

Marriage out of the question?  Well all is not lost but it's no longer straight forward.  First of all you'll need to request the appropriate forms on legally changing your name from the relevant state office.  Then once you complete these, you will be subjected to background checks to ascertain if there's a sinister reason behind you wanting to change your name.  It's even possible that you might need to go into court and explain in person to a Judge why it's so important to you to legally change your name.  None of this will be without legal costs and if it is vital to you that your name be changed, if it goes as far as having to stand in front of a Judge to argue your case, you'll probably want to hire an attorney to do this for you!

It is possible to legally change your name if that's what you want to do, but be warned before you start that this might be a longer, more expensive process than you might have believed possible!