Changing your name after marriage in Maine
What Maine 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 Maine you need a certified marriage certificate, then Social Security, then Maine BMV.
Social Security comes first. Every state checks your new name against its record before issuing a license.
In Maine, a certified marriage certificate comes from either the state vital records office or the county that issued your marriage license.
The state office charges $15.00 for one copy.
Maine asks you to update your license within 30 days.
The marriage certificate Maine 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 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 | |
| What a copy costs | $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 | |
| What Maine BMV charges | 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. | Maine BMV |
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 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.
- 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: Maine Center for Disease Control, Data Research and Vital Statistics, or most municipal offices · checked
The sequence in Maine
- 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 Maine BMV 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 Maine accept as proof of a name change after marriage?
- Maine BMV asks for: Legal documentation of the name change.
- 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 Maine BMV 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 Maine 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 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.