Changing your name in Maine
Changing your name in Maine runs through Maine BMV. 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 Maine driver license or state ID you apply through Maine BMV.
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.
Maine does not publish a single figure for this, so we have not printed one.
Maine asks you to do it within 30 days.
Check whether your office requires an appointment before you travel.
What Maine BMV 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 | Maine BMV | Maine BMV — name change | |
| Form | Maine names no single form for this. | Maine BMV — name change | |
| Fee | Maine publishes no separate name-change figure. A duplicate credential is $5 for a non-compliant license or ID and $30 for a REAL ID one. | Fee schedule | |
| Deadline | 30 days | Maine BMV — name change | |
| In person? | Varies by office. | Maine BMV — name change |
What to bring to the Maine counter
- Legal documentation of the name change
Source: Maine BMV · checked
The sequence that works in Maine
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 Maine BMV 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 Maine
- Thirty days, and Maine cites the statute rather than a policy: 29-A M.R.S.A. §1407 requires you to notify BMV of name-change information within 30 days.
- The REAL ID gap is unusually wide here — $5 for a non-compliant duplicate against $30 for a REAL ID one. If your current card is non-compliant, doing the name change before you upgrade is the cheaper order.
- Maine mails credentials with Return Service Requested and does not forward them, so make sure BMV has your current address before the new card is printed. Getting one back from USPS can take six weeks.
Source: Maine BMV · checked
Where your document comes from in Maine
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 either the state vital records office or the county that issued your marriage license Maine issues certified marriage copies for events from 1892 onward. The records are held both by the state office and by most municipal offices statewide, so a town clerk can issue one too. | Maine Center for Disease Control, Data Research and Vital Statistics, or most municipal offices | |
| Cost of a copy | $15.00 Additional certified copies of the same record ordered at the same time are $6.00 each. | Maine Center for Disease Control, Data Research and Vital Statistics, or most municipal offices | |
| Decree or court order | District Court, via the clerk of court Maine divorces are heard in the District Court and certified copies come from the clerk's office where the case was heard. Maine splits the two questions: an adult name change goes through the county Probate Court instead, which is a separate system from the state Judicial Branch. | Maine 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 Maine 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 Maine BMV.
- In Maine, a certified marriage certificate comes from either the state vital records office or the county that issued your marriage license — Maine Center for Disease Control, Data Research and Vital Statistics, or most municipal offices.
- The Maine state office charges $15.00 for one certified copy.
- Maine issues certified marriage copies for events from 1892 onward. The records are held both by the state office and by most municipal offices statewide, so a town clerk can issue one too.
Changing your name after divorce
Take your divorce decree to Maine BMV.
- 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 Maine BMV.
- 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 Maine page, the link goes there. Where it does not, it goes to the guide for that path, which holds in every state.
Maine name change questions
- Do I have to change my name at Social Security before the Maine 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 Maine name change cost?
- Maine does not publish a single figure we could verify, so we have not printed one. The agency's own fee page is linked above.
- 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 Maine 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.