This is where I’m going to note the process of my legal name change to Robin Quartz Universe in IL I do not claim to be an expert of any kind, and nothing I say here is to be taken as legal advice, but I will write what my understanding is purely from my own experiences and research, and hopefully this can be educational to someone who is wanting to do the same thing

STUFF I HAVE DONE

0. RESEARCH

A lot of research needed to be done before even starting to attempt this, to be fair, I probably spent quite a lot more time than I needed to sitting on this and not moving forward, but at least I’m well prepared

1. Get Paperwork from County Court Clerk

I went to the County Court Clerk and spoke with a gentlemen who gave me all the instructions I needed to E-File my case, and to apply for a request to waive court fees. He also instructed me to schedule my court day out 10 weeks from now, to give the judge plenty of time to consider my waiver

This part could have very easily been done online, if I had a printer/scanner, but alas

The documents you will need / recieve are:

  1. (Request for Name Change ( Adult ) ( 3 Pages )

  2. Publication Notice of Court Date for Request for Name Change (Adult) ( 1 Page )

(if attempting to have your court fees waived)

  1. Application for Waiver of Court Fees ( 3 Pages )

3. Fill out, scan, and E-File

( 1. Request for name change ( Adult ) ) and ( 2. Application for Waiver of Court Fees )

I completed this by filling out the paperwork at home after I got it from the county clerk, having my partner sign as my witness, and then taking the paperwork in to work to use their scanner, after this I formatted the files, created an account on the courts E-Filing system, Odyssey, and E-Filed everything, creating a ‘Waiver’ account as my payment account. If you will not be using a waiver, the normal fee for this part seems to hover around $360 in most counties

4. Schedule a Court Date

I had to wait to recieve a case number, which took about a day after E-File, but once that is done, this was a very simple process, I just called, gave them my case number, and requested a date about 10 weeks out, she then gave me the exact date, time, and courtroom number

5. Publication

Once you have a court date, you can now fill out the Publication Notice of Court Date for Request for Name Change (Adult) with your case number, court date, and location/courtroom, and E-File, adding to your already existing case file.

In IL, ( and many other states ) it is required by law to have the court date for your name change published in the newspaper for some amount of time before the court date, for IL it needs to be submitted for at least 3 weeks continuously and it has to be submitted at least 6 weeks before the court date

In my county, the court itself handles the publication, and so the waiver account can be used as the payment account for this process, but in most other counties you would need to submit this paperwork to the publication that you have chosen. If you are not using a Waiver, the fee for this seems to hover around $100-$150

STUFF I HAVEN’T DONE YET

6. Arrive at court, and have the judge approve of your case

Once you get to this step, it’s my understanding that the judge will try to determine if your reason for wanting a name change is fraudulent or not, and if they have no suspicions, will approve of your request. The court will then sell you certified copies of the court order for a name change, for about $9 a pop, if my research is correct

7. Change your name on your Driver’s License / ID within 10 days

This is required to be done pretty quickly, All you should need to do is arrive with a certified copy of your court order, and if you also would like to change your gender marker, bring a filled out “Gender Designation Change Form” to submit as well ( found here )

8. Change your name on you Social Security card, and if desired also change your gender marker on SSA

It is my understanding that the only thing you need to bring in to a Social Security office to have the name change done is a valid form of ID, and your court ordered name change, as for the gender marker, as of fall 2022, this will hopefully be self-assignable without any additional proof, but as of writing, the easiest form of proof you can get is a doctor’s note saying that you’re the gender you’ve specified and that you’re pursuing transition

9. After this point you should have enough paperwork to change pretty much everything else

The first next thing you’re going to want to try to change is your birth certificate, but for me, being born in Texas I imagine is going to make this quite a pain in the ass. I have not even really begun to research how I’m going to make this happen

The rest will have to be figured out per case, IE for your bank, car loans, bills, etc.,. Because of marriage name changes, most if not all of these have mechanisms in place to handle changing your name, if you follow the right channels and fill out the right paperwork. It is quite important that you do this for everything, though!

I will try to update this blog with my continued experience as I work through this process