Changing your name in Pennsylvania
Changing your name in Pennsylvania runs through PennDOT. 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 Pennsylvania driver license or state ID you apply through PennDOT.
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.
Pennsylvania charges nothing for the name change itself.
You have to go in person — the counter takes a new photograph.
What PennDOT 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 | PennDOT | PennDOT — name change | |
| Form | DL-80 — Non-Commercial Driver’s License Application for Change/Correction/Replacement | Form DL-80 | |
| Fee | Free No fee for a change or correction on its own — DL-80’s own fee table reads "CHANGE/CORRECTION ONLY — NO FEE REQUIRED", and PennDOT issues an update card to carry with your license. A replacement photo license showing the new name is a separate, optional transaction at the replacement fee printed on the form ($42.50; $48.50 with a motorcycle class). | PennDOT — name change | |
| Deadline | Pennsylvania publishes no statutory deadline. | PennDOT — name change | |
| In person? | Required | PennDOT — name change |
What to bring to the Pennsylvania counter
- The original document DL-80’s NAME CHANGE section asks for: a certified copy of the court order where a court granted the change (a divorce decree that restores a name is that order), your marriage certificate to take a spouse’s surname, or your state-issued birth certificate with a raised seal to go back to your birth name.
- Everything must be an original. DL-80 says so, and the visit is in person, so a photocopy is a wasted trip.
Source: PennDOT · checked
The sequence that works in Pennsylvania
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 PennDOT 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 Pennsylvania
- Name changes are done in person: bring the completed DL-80 and your original documents to a Driver License Center — the form says so in its own Section C, and PennDOT’s site repeats it.
- A change or correction on its own is free and gets you an update card to carry with your license. If you want a new photo license showing the new name now rather than at renewal, that is a replacement, at the fee on the form’s fee table.
- Adding or removing the organ-donor or veterans designation changes that. DL-80’s own fee table makes either one a fee-bearing replacement, and it says no update card is issued when the donor designation changes. Because that fee depends on your license class, the TOTAL box on the form is left for you to complete once the Driver License Center tells you which one applies.
- Your voter registration rides along with this form. DL-80 says the application also serves as a request to update it unless you tick the box declining — so unless you told us to leave your registration alone, there is nothing else to file. The vote.gov link below is the federal portal, useful for checking the record afterwards rather than for making the request.
- If your license expires within the next six months, use form DL-143 (renewal) instead of DL-80.
Source: PennDOT · checked
There’s an official form behind this in Pennsylvania, and it’s one of the ones our kit fills in from your answers rather than handing you blank.
Where your document comes from in Pennsylvania
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 the county that issued your marriage license Pennsylvania's Department of Health does not issue marriage records at all — its vital records service covers births, deaths and adoptions only. Marriage licenses are issued and certified by the county Clerk of Orphans' Court. | County Clerk of Orphans' Court | |
| Cost of a copy | Set per county. Franklin County charges $10.00 for a certified duplicate. | County Clerk of Orphans' Court | |
| Decree or court order | Court of Common Pleas, via the prothonotary Pennsylvania calls the civil records officer of the Court of Common Pleas the prothonotary, and that office handles divorce and name-change filings. Certified copies come from the prothonotary in the county where the case was filed. | Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 PennDOT.
- In Pennsylvania, a certified marriage certificate comes from the county that issued your marriage license — County Clerk of Orphans' Court.
- Set per county. Franklin County charges $10.00 for a certified duplicate.
- Pennsylvania's Department of Health does not issue marriage records at all — its vital records service covers births, deaths and adoptions only. Marriage licenses are issued and certified by the county Clerk of Orphans' Court.
Changing your name after divorce
Take your divorce decree to PennDOT.
- 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 PennDOT.
- 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 Pennsylvania page, the link goes there. Where it does not, it goes to the guide for that path, which holds in every state.
Updating your Pennsylvania voter registration
Free, and the one people assume happens automatically at the DMV.
| What | Value | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Change it online? | Yes | Pennsylvania Department of State | |
| Does the DMV do it for you? | Pennsylvania does not say. Check rather than assume. | Pennsylvania Department of State | |
| Registration closes | 15 days before | Pennsylvania Department of State |
Pennsylvania lets you update a registration online, by mail, or in person, and names the online route as the fastest. A change made more than 15 days before an election takes effect for that election; a change made inside 15 days takes effect for the next one.
Pennsylvania name change questions
- Do I have to change my name at Social Security before the Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania name change cost?
- Pennsylvania charges nothing for the name change itself. No fee for a change or correction on its own — DL-80’s own fee table reads "CHANGE/CORRECTION ONLY — NO FEE REQUIRED", and PennDOT issues an update card to carry with your license. A replacement photo license showing the new name is a separate, optional transaction at the replacement fee printed on the form ($42.50; $48.50 with a motorcycle class).
- 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 Pennsylvania 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.
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