Changing your name after marriage in Mississippi
What Mississippi 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 Mississippi you need a certified marriage certificate, then Social Security, then Mississippi Driver Service Bureau.
Social Security comes first. Every state checks your new name against its record before issuing a license.
In Mississippi, a certified marriage certificate comes from either the state vital records office or the county that issued your marriage license.
The state office charges $17.00 for one copy.
The marriage certificate Mississippi 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 Mississippi says its marriage records are maintained by state and county officials together. Records from July 1938 to December 1941 were kept only by county Circuit Court clerks, which shows how the split works in practice. | Mississippi State Department of Health Office of Vital Records, or the county Circuit Clerk | |
| What a copy costs | $17.00 Ordering by phone or online adds a vendor fee on top of the $17 base. | Mississippi State Department of Health Office of Vital Records, or the county Circuit Clerk | |
| What Mississippi Driver Service Bureau charges | Mississippi publishes a fee schedule but no name-change line on it. Ask at the station which fee applies. | Mississippi Driver Service Bureau |
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 Mississippi, a certified marriage certificate comes from either the state vital records office or the county that issued your marriage license — Mississippi State Department of Health Office of Vital Records, or the county Circuit Clerk.
- The Mississippi state office charges $17.00 for one certified copy.
- Mississippi says its marriage records are maintained by state and county officials together. Records from July 1938 to December 1941 were kept only by county Circuit Court clerks, which shows how the split works in practice.
- 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: Mississippi State Department of Health Office of Vital Records, or the county Circuit Clerk · checked
The sequence in Mississippi
- 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 Mississippi Driver Service Bureau 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 Mississippi accept as proof of a name change after marriage?
- Mississippi Driver Service Bureau asks for: A marriage license, a divorce decree, an adoption order, or a court order — original only, and Mississippi accepts no other document type; Proof of your Social Security number: your Social Security card, or official government correspondence showing all nine digits (a returned W-2 or 1099, a pay stub carrying the full number, a DD-214 or an NGB-22); Proof of date of birth: an original or certified birth certificate carrying a state seal and a certificate number, a Certificate of Naturalization, or a Certificate of Citizenship — photocopies are refused; Two proofs of Mississippi residency showing your name and a street address.
- 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 Mississippi Driver Service Bureau 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 Mississippi 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 Mississippi in the order that works, and a written letter for every bank, employer and insurer you have to tell.
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