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Changing Your Name

Chosen Name

In addition to your legal name (referred to on campus as your Primary Name), UMass Dartmouth allows students to designate a Chosen Name, which appears, by default, on class rosters, grade rosters, and on Canvas.

Learn more about how to update or change your Chosen Name.

UMass Pass 

Your UMass Pass defaults to your legal name. If you wish to have your chosen name on your UMass Pass ID card, please submit a UMass Pass Name Change Form (PDF) to the UMass Pass office (ground floor of the Campus Center Building) or by emailing umasspass@umassd.edu. To set up a private appointment, please email or call UMass Pass at 508-999-8134. 

How to receive a legal name change in Massachusetts

Are you transgender? Do you need legal assistance changing your name? The Human Rights Clinic at UMass School of Law can help students with legal name changes. Contact them for information and a confidential consultation. They may be able to assist with other legal matters as well.

Human Rights Clinic
333 faunce Corner Rd., North Dartmouth, MA 02747
508-985-1159

Where to go

To file for a legal name change, you need to go to the office of the Register of Probate in the Probate and Family Court in the county in which you reside.

What you will need to bring

  1. A certified copy of your birth certificate
  2. Previous name change decrees (if any)
    • If your name has been previously changed by decree of court or at marriage, either a copy of record of birth so amended, a copy of such decree, or a copy of record of marriage must be filed with the application.
  3. Name Change Petition Form
    • This form is available.
    • The form asks why you are changing your name.
    • You do not have to indicate that you are trans or nonbinary, and you do not need to be on hormones, have had gender confirmation surgery, or have a letter from a doctor or therapist.
    • Some people choose to write "common usage," "personal reason," or "it's the name that I use."

As long as you are not changing your name in order to commit fraud, you have the legal right to change your name. A criminal record check will be done for all name-change petitioners over the age of 7 years. If you are denied the right to change your name because of a criminal record, you may wish to contact a lawyer.

Cost

The cost to file for a name change is $150, plus a $15 surcharge. Fees may be paid with cash, money order, or personal check. If you receive public benefits, have an income below the poverty line, or otherwise cannot afford $165, you may request that the fee be waived by declaring indigence. The Clerk of the Court can also offer assistance.

Financial assistance may also be available through the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition's IDA Network. 

The process

All name change petitions are published in a local newspaper. There is a separate charge for the publication and you can usually choose the paper in which the notice is published. If you have a good reason that the notice should not be published, you can file a motion to waive publication and an affidavit (a sworn statement) stating why you do not wish to have this information published. You may have to appear before a judge to explain your reasons.

Each probate court has a different process for handling name changes. In some courts, you may go before a judge or before a judge's clerk. In other courts, the judge looks at the name change application outside of the petitioner's presence. You may be able to finish everything that day or you may be required to return in about two weeks.

Trans students may also utilize GLAD's Trans ID Project.