Can I go back to my former name after a California divorce, and how?

The rule in Family Code section 2080

Section 2080 is one sentence long. In a proceeding for dissolution of marriage or for nullity of marriage, the court, upon the request of a party, shall restore the birth name or former name of that party. The statute uses "shall", not "may": the court restores the name when a party asks. The section was last amended by Statutes 2024, chapter 780 (Senate Bill 1150), effective January 1, 2025.

The sentence also settles a question many people worry about: whether the petition had to mention the name. It did not. The court restores the name regardless of whether a request for restoration was included in the petition. A spouse who filed the petition without checking a name box, and a respondent who never filed a petition at all, can each make the request later in the case.

Three limits are built into the text. The request is made by a party, and the name restored is "that party's" own; the section does not provide for one spouse to ask for a change to the other spouse's name. The name must be a birth name or a former name, which means a name the person actually had before. And the section applies to a dissolution or a nullity, but expressly not to a proceeding for legal separation.

Fraud is the only ground for refusal, and the common law right survives

Family Code section 2081 closes off the reasons a court might otherwise give for saying no. A restoration requested under section 2080 shall not be denied on the basis that the party has custody of a minor child who bears a different name, or for any other reason except fraud. The statute names a single exception, and it is fraud.

Section 2081 does not define fraud or describe how it would be shown, and no other section in the chapter does. What the text makes plain is the structure: the request is granted unless fraud is present, rather than granted only when the judge finds a good reason for it.

Family Code section 2082 adds that the code does not abrogate the common law right of any person to change one's name. The chapter on restoring a former name is one route, available inside a divorce case; it does not take away any other right a person has to change a name. The statute does not describe what that other route involves, and the Judicial Council's self-help page answers the practical side: a person who wants a new name, rather than a former one, has to start a separate name change case. The divorce case can only take you back to a name you have had.

Asking while the divorce is still open: forms FL-170 and FL-180

The Judicial Council's guide to changing your name in a divorce case shows where the request goes on the forms used to finish a default or uncontested divorce. Two forms carry it.

When the request is made this way, the guide states that once the judge signs the Judgment, it becomes your legal proof of the name change. The restored name is written into the same order that ends the marriage.

• Declaration for Default or Uncontested Dissolution or Legal Separation (form FL-170): item 12 is checked to ask the court to restore a former name.
• Judgment (form FL-180): item 4(f) is where the full name the person is returning to is written out, exactly as it should read.

Asking after the judgment: form FL-395

A request that was not made in the judgment is not lost. The guide says that if your divorce is already final you can still ask to change your name back, and the page on steps after a divorce repeats it: a person who did not change names in the divorce and decides to do it later still can. Section 2080 itself sets no deadline, and nothing in the three sections limits the request to the period before judgment.

On fees, the guide says that if FL-395 is the first paper you have filed in the case you may have to pay a filing fee, that if you already paid a filing fee you may not need to pay again, and that the court clerk can confirm which applies. A person who cannot afford the fee can ask for a fee waiver. The guide also notes that processing time varies by court.

If the judge signs, the clerk sends you the signed form, and the guide describes that signed FL-395 as your proof of the name change, in the same way the signed Judgment is proof when the request is made in the case.

The form is the Ex Parte Application for Restoration of Former Name After Entry of Judgment and Order (form FL-395). The guide lists the steps in this order:

• Fill out form FL-395 with the former name you are returning to.
• Make one copy of the form.
• Prepare a self-addressed stamped envelope, unless you will collect the signed form at the court.
• File the form in person, or mail it, at the court where the divorce was filed.
• The clerk passes the form to a judge, who reviews and signs it.

Certified copies and changing your records

A court order changes your legal name, but it does not change any record held by anyone else. The guide warns that your IDs and records are not updated automatically: you must go to each agency yourself and show a copy of the name change. Many government agencies, the guide says, including the Social Security Administration and the Department of Motor Vehicles, will ask for a certified copy of the signed order, which you ask the court clerk to make.

The Judicial Council's page on steps after a divorce lists the records a certified copy of a judgment restoring a former name can be used to update: a driver's license or state identification card, Social Security records, a passport, and bank accounts and other legal documents.

The fee for a certified copy of the judgment is set by statute. Government Code section 70674 provides a fee of $15 for a certified copy of a marriage dissolution record for any applicant other than a public agency, and $10 for a public agency that needs the copy in the ordinary course of business. The section defines the dissolution record as the judgment, and it applies notwithstanding section 70626(a)(4). Section 70674 covers a certified copy of the judgment; it does not set the fee for a certified copy of an FL-395 order signed after the judgment, and the court clerk can confirm that fee. The Judicial Council's Statewide Civil Fee Schedule effective January 1, 2026 lists the same fee as item 195 ($15), with item 194 ($10) for a public agency.

What a divorce case cannot do for a name

A legal separation. The section states in terms that it does not apply in a proceeding for legal separation of the parties. A legal separation and an annulment are both outside the flat fee.

A new name. Section 2080 restores a birth name or a former name; it does not create a new one. A surname the person has never had is a matter for a separate name change case, as the self-help guide says.

A divorce granted in another state. The California guide says that a person whose divorce was outside California should ask the court that handled the divorce whether it has a process to restore a former name, and that if it does not, a new name change case may be needed.

A former name in an uncontested divorce prepared by the office

In an agreed divorce, the request belongs in the same packet as the rest of the judgment, so the restored name is part of the order that ends the marriage. Each spouse makes that choice separately, because the request under section 2080 is made by a party for that party's own name.

For one flat fee, Law Offices of Rozsa Gyene prepares and reviews each paper in that packet, under a limited scope engagement that rule 5.425 of the California Rules of Court governs. The client, who is the only spouse the office represents, files the packet personally and follows written filing instructions the attorney has reviewed. Filing and serving papers, court appearances, a notary, and the preparation or recording of deeds all fall to someone other than the office. Rozsa Gyene, State Bar of California No. 208356, 3500 W. Olive Ave., Suite 300, Burbank, CA 91505.