Changing your name with a court order in Texas
What Texas asks for, where your signed court order comes from, and the order that works. Every figure below is dated and linked to the agency that publishes it.
To change your name with a court order in Texas you need a certified copy of your signed court order, then Social Security, then Texas Department of Public Safety.
Social Security comes first. Every state checks your new name against its record before issuing a license.
The copy agencies accept is the one signed by the judge and sealed by the clerk.
In Texas that is a District Court record, held by the District Clerk.
Texas asks you to update your license within 30 days.
The signed court order Texas 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which court | District Court | Texas courts | |
| Who holds the record | The District Clerk Texas district courts have original jurisdiction over divorce, and each county's District Clerk is the record custodian who provides certified copies of a decree. | Texas courts | |
| What Texas Department of Public Safety charges | $11.00 Replacement license or ID $11. Your expiry date does not change. | Texas Department of Public Safety |
If your order came from a court in another state, request the certified copy from that court rather than from a Texas one. The record sits where the case was filed.
What with a court order changes about it
- If it changed any other way: one original or certified document — a certified court order, an amended birth certificate, or a Certificate of Naturalization (form N-550, N-570 or N-578). DPS’s own word for the court order is "certified"
- 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.
Source: Texas Department of Public Safety — name change · checked
The sequence in Texas
- Get a certified copy of your signed court order. 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 Texas Department of Public Safety 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 Texas accept as proof of a name change with a court order?
- Texas Department of Public Safety asks for: If your name changed by marriage: one original or certified document — a marriage license, a divorce decree, an annulment, or a Department of State Health Services marriage verification letter; If it changed any other way: one original or certified document — a certified court order, an amended birth certificate, or a Certificate of Naturalization (form N-550, N-570 or N-578). DPS’s own word for the court order is "certified"; Your current Texas license or ID card.
- Can I go to Texas Department of Public Safety 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 Texas name change requirements · The national guide to changing your name with a court order
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 Texas 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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