Changing your name in Alaska
Changing your name in Alaska runs through Alaska DMV. The table below is what the agency itself publishes — what it charges, what it wants to see, and whether you have to turn up in person — with the date we last checked each one. Social Security comes first, before any of it — it is the record most licensing agencies check your new name against, so doing it first is what keeps the counter visit to one trip.
To change your name on a Alaska driver license or state ID you apply through Alaska DMV.
Update Social Security first — it is the record most licensing agencies check your new name against, and several states require the update before they will issue.
Alaska charges $15.00.
Alaska asks you to do it within 30 days.
You have to go in person — the counter takes a new photograph.
What Alaska DMV requires
Read off the agency’s own pages. The date beside each row is the day we last checked it — a government fee with no date on it is worth very little.
| What | Value | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency | Alaska DMV | Alaska DMV — name change | |
| Form | D1 — Driver License, Permit or Identification Card Transaction Application | Form D1 | |
| Fee | $15.00 Duplicate driver or motorcycle license $15 standard, $35 REAL ID. | Fee schedule | |
| Deadline | 30 days | Alaska DMV — name change | |
| In person? | Required | Alaska DMV — name change |
What to bring to the Alaska counter
- A marriage certificate from Vital Statistics; a certificate of dissolution, divorce or annulment from the Court System stating the new legal name; a court order; a current US passport; an amended birth certificate dated after your last credential was issued; certified adoption papers; a Certificate of Naturalization; or a Certificate of Name Change
- Documentation linking every intervening name, if you have changed it more than once
Source: Alaska DMV · checked
The sequence that works in Alaska
Almost every failed name change is a sequencing failure — somebody at the counter before the records caught up.
- Do Social Security first — it’s the record most agencies check against, so getting it done first is what keeps the rest in step. A few states require it outright and say so on their own page.
- Apply at Alaska DMV once Social Security has updated, which usually takes a day or two.
- Update your passport. Which form applies depends on when yours was issued.
- Update your vehicle title and registration, usually at the same counter.
- Update your voter registration, then your bank, employer, insurers and utilities.
What catches people out in Alaska
- Thirty days, and Alaska cites the statute: AS 28.05.071 requires you to notify DMV of a name or address change within 30 days.
- Proof has to be submitted in person.
- Originals or certified copies only — Alaska names photocopies and faxes as unacceptable.
- If your name has changed more than once, Alaska wants the chain. Where the name on your primary document differs from your current one, bring the intervening marriage certificate, divorce decree or adoption file that links them.
- A marriage certificate has to come from Vital Statistics, and a dissolution, divorce or annulment certificate from the Court System, stating the new legal name specifically.
- A vision test may be required.
- If the card you carry is an instruction permit, Alaska prices it separately — $15 — and issues it as a non-REAL-ID credential only. There is no REAL ID version of a permit to ask for.
Source: Alaska DMV · checked
There’s an official form behind this in Alaska, and it’s one of the ones our kit fills in from your answers rather than handing you blank.
Where your document comes from in Alaska
Every agency in the sequence wants the original or a certified copy. Where you get one depends on which document you hold, and it is one of the few things that genuinely differs from state to state.
| What | Value | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marriage certificate | From the state vital records office Alaska charges $30.00 for a certified copy of a marriage certificate. The agency warns that it partners with only one online ordering vendor and that other third-party sites are not authorized. | Alaska Department of Health, Health Analytics and Vital Records | |
| Cost of a copy | $30.00 Additional copies of the same record ordered at the same time are $25 each. | Alaska Department of Health, Health Analytics and Vital Records | |
| Decree or court order | Superior Court, via the clerk of the superior court Alaska's case records, including a divorce decree, are held by the clerk of the superior court in the judicial district where the case was filed. | Alaska courts |
If you married or divorced in a different state, order from that state rather than this one. The record sits where the event was filed, not where you live now.
Whichever way your name changed
The Alaska paperwork is the same three steps whatever authorized the change. What differs is which document you take to the counter.
Changing your name after marriage
Take your marriage certificate to Alaska DMV.
- In Alaska, a certified marriage certificate comes from the state vital records office — Alaska Department of Health, Health Analytics and Vital Records.
- The Alaska state office charges $30.00 for one certified copy.
- Alaska charges $30.00 for a certified copy of a marriage certificate. The agency warns that it partners with only one online ordering vendor and that other third-party sites are not authorized.
Changing your name after divorce
Take your divorce decree to Alaska DMV.
- A divorce decree only changes your name if it contains a clause naming a former name and restoring it to you. Ending the marriage does not do it on its own.
- If your decree has no restoration clause, a counter clerk will refuse it, and the route back to a former name is a court petition instead.
- Agencies usually want the complete decree rather than the page carrying the clause, because the caption and the judge’s signature are on other pages.
Changing your name with a court order
Take your signed court order to Alaska DMV.
- The copy that agencies accept is the one signed by the judge and stamped or sealed by the clerk. An unsigned conformed copy is refused.
- Agencies accept a signed court order on its own — none of them asks for a marriage or divorce document alongside it.
- The reason a court granted the order does not change the paperwork that follows it. Every agency downstream asks only to see the order.
Where a path has its own Alaska page, the link goes there. Where it does not, it goes to the guide for that path, which holds in every state.
Updating your Alaska voter registration
Free, and the one people assume happens automatically at the DMV.
| What | Value | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Change it online? | Yes | Alaska Division of Elections | |
| Does the DMV do it for you? | Alaska does not say. Check rather than assume. | Alaska Division of Elections | |
| Registration closes | 30 days before | Alaska Division of Elections |
Alaska lets a voter update a registration record for a name change through its online system, which needs an Alaska license or ID number that matches DMV records.
Alaska name change questions
- Do I have to change my name at Social Security before the Alaska DMV?
- Do Social Security first — it’s the record most agencies check against, so getting it done first is what keeps the rest in step. A few states require it outright and say so on their own page.
- How much does a Alaska name change cost?
- Alaska charges $15.00. Duplicate driver or motorcycle license $15 standard, $35 REAL ID.
- Is a photocopy of my document enough?
- No. Every agency wants the original or a certified copy, and several refuse a certified copy that has been laminated.
Everything above is free. The rest of the list is the work.
You can do all of this yourself with the links on this page — every underlying form is free. What we sell is the evening back: the official forms filled in from your answers, the steps in Alaska in the order that works, and a written letter for every bank, employer and insurer you have to tell.
Two questions about your situation first, because there is one answer that means we can’t help — and we would rather tell you that before you pay than after.
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