Changing your name after marriage in Missouri
What Missouri 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 Missouri you need a certified marriage certificate, then Social Security, then Missouri Department of Revenue.
Social Security comes first. Every state checks your new name against its record before issuing a license.
In Missouri, a certified marriage certificate comes from either the state vital records office or the county that issued your marriage license.
The marriage certificate Missouri 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 Missouri's Bureau of Vital Records maintains a central registry of marriages and divorces from 1 July 1948 onward. The county Recorder of Deeds that issued the license holds the marriage certificate itself. | Missouri Bureau of Vital Records, or the county Recorder of Deeds | |
| What a copy costs | Missouri's current fee could not be read from the agency's page. | Missouri Bureau of Vital Records, or the county Recorder of Deeds | |
| What Missouri Department of Revenue charges | Missouri charges the duplicate driver license fee; the amount is not printed on the name-change page. | Missouri Department of Revenue |
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 Missouri, a certified marriage certificate comes from either the state vital records office or the county that issued your marriage license — Missouri Bureau of Vital Records, or the county Recorder of Deeds.
- Missouri's current fee could not be read from the agency's page.
- Missouri's Bureau of Vital Records maintains a central registry of marriages and divorces from 1 July 1948 onward. The county Recorder of Deeds that issued the license holds the marriage certificate itself.
- 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: Missouri Bureau of Vital Records, or the county Recorder of Deeds · checked
The sequence in Missouri
- 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 Missouri Department of Revenue 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 Missouri accept as proof of a name change after marriage?
- Missouri Department of Revenue asks for: A certified marriage certificate or a certified court order; You may also be asked for proof of name, date and place of birth, Social Security number, and Missouri residential 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 Missouri Department of Revenue 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 Missouri 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 Missouri 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.