Changing your name after marriage in Louisiana
What Louisiana asks for, where your marriage certificate comes from, and the order that works. Every figure below is dated and linked to the agency that publishes it.
To change your name after marriage in Louisiana you need a certified marriage certificate, then Social Security, then Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles.
Social Security comes first. Every state checks your new name against its record before issuing a license.
In Louisiana, a certified marriage certificate comes from either the state vital records office or the county that issued your marriage license.
The marriage certificate Louisiana wants to see
This is the part that differs by situation. Everything downstream of it is the same sequence whichever document you hold.
| What | Value | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where to get it | either the state vital records office or the county that issued your marriage license Louisiana's state registry issues certified copies only for Orleans Parish marriages less than 50 years old. Every other parish's marriage certificate comes from that parish's Clerk of Court. | Louisiana Vital Records Registry for Orleans Parish, otherwise the parish Clerk of Court | |
| What a copy costs | Louisiana publishes no single figure. Each parish clerk of court sets its own. | Louisiana Vital Records Registry for Orleans Parish, otherwise the parish Clerk of Court | |
| What Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles charges | Not verified | Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles | — |
If you married in another state, order from that state instead. The record sits where the license was filed, not where you live now.
What after marriage changes about it
- In Louisiana, a certified marriage certificate comes from either the state vital records office or the county that issued your marriage license — Louisiana Vital Records Registry for Orleans Parish, otherwise the parish Clerk of Court.
- Louisiana publishes no single figure. Each parish clerk of court sets its own.
- Louisiana's state registry issues certified copies only for Orleans Parish marriages less than 50 years old. Every other parish's marriage certificate comes from that parish's Clerk of Court.
- The license is the permission to marry and is issued before the wedding. The certificate is the record of it and is issued afterward. Agencies want the certificate.
- Social Security accepts a certified marriage document as evidence of the new name on form SS-5.
Source: Louisiana Vital Records Registry for Orleans Parish, otherwise the parish Clerk of Court · checked
The sequence in Louisiana
- Get a certified marriage certificate. Order more than one — several agencies want to see it and not all return it quickly.
- Submit form SS-5 to Social Security. It is free, and it has to be first.
- Apply at Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles once the Social Security record has updated.
- Update your passport, then your vehicle title, then your voter registration.
- Tell your bank, your employer, your insurers, your utilities and your subscriptions.
Questions people ask
- What does Louisiana accept as proof of a name change after marriage?
- Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles asks for the original or a certified copy of your marriage certificate. Photocopies are refused everywhere.
- Is a marriage license the same as a marriage certificate?
- No. The license is the permission to marry and is issued before the wedding. The certificate is the record of it and is issued afterward. Agencies want the certificate.
- Can I go to Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles before Social Security?
- 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.
All Louisiana name change requirements · The national guide to changing your name after marriage
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 Louisiana 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.
One payment. No subscription.