Should You Keep Your Married Name After New Jersey Divorce

If you are involved in a New Jersey divorce, one issue that you may face is whether or not you should keep your marriage name once the marriage is over. In this regard, there are a number of questions to bear in mind when you consider whether or not you should keep your married name at the conclusion of a marriage dissolution case:

• Are there benefits of a completely clean break, including changing your name?
• Does your maiden name reflect who you are today?
• Will changing your surname disrupt your professional life?
• How will a name change impact children born during the marriage?

There is a grieving, recovery, or carrying on process associated with the end of a marriage. In this regard, a legitimate argument can be made that a person who has ended a marriage should avail oneself of all tools, resources, and action plans that further the grieving, recovery, or carrying on process.

In some instances, when it comes to moving forward with life following a New Jersey divorce, a clean break from the past and the marriage can be extremely beneficial. A stark reality for some people after some marriage dissolution cases is that continuing to bear the surname of a former spouse can be a haunting and unhelpful experience. Going back to a former name can prove to be a very helpful step in making a clean break from a past that a person truly needs to move away from in order to have a healthy, happy – even joyful – life.

The internal debate over keeping or changing your surname following a New Jersey divorce can necessitate a consideration of who you are today. In this regard, when debating whether or not you should change your name following a divorce, you need to contemplate whether a maiden or former name fits where you are at and who you are today. For example, if you were married for a good many years, and your maiden or former name is not one you have used for a significant amount of time, reverting back to that surname might not make the best sense for you.

If you are involved in a business or are a professional of some sort, your name is part of your brand. If you have been using your married name in that capacity, you need to give serious thought as to the impact changing your surname following a divorce might have on your business or professional life. While not to sound flippant, the makers of Coke are not ever going to be eager to change the brand name because doing so would have catastrophic consequences. The bottom line is that if you change your name after a divorce, you may find yourself facing some real rebranding issues when it comes to your business or professional life.

If you are like many parents, if your surname changed when you married, your children likely bear the last name of the other parent. In other words, if you elect to change your last name following the end of your marriage, your last name will differ from your children. In the grand scheme of things, that might not be a favorable state of affairs.

You will want to come to a decision regarding a name change while the divorce proceedings are underway. By doing so, you can obtain a name change as part of the final marriage dissolution decree. While it is possible to change your name after a divorce case has concluded, that process is more complicated, expensive and time consuming.

If you are in need of representation in a divorce case, the experienced legal team at the Law Offices of Peter Van Aulen are here to assist you. You can reach our firm by calling (201) 845-7400 at your convenience.