American women have traditionally taken their husbands’ last names as their own when they marry.\u00a0\u00a0 Although we are now approaching true gender equality in this country,\u00a0nearly all married women here\u00a0still bear their husbands’ last names or at least a hyphenated last name containing their husbands’ surnames.<\/p>\n
When a couple divorces in Arizona, it is the wife’s choice whether\u00a0to retain her married name or to be restored to her maiden\/former name.\u00a0 A husband cannot force<\/em> his divorcing wife\u00a0to release his surname and take back her former name.\u00a0 Likewise, he cannot object to the name restoration and force his wife to keep his name.\u00a0 The husband’s position on the name change is irrelevant.<\/p>\n In long-term marriages involving children, many divorcing women choose to retain their married names so they will have the same last name as their children.\u00a0 A woman wishing to go back to her former name can\u00a0have the name change done as part of the divorce.\u00a0 A.R.S. Section 25-325(C). \u00a0The statute does not\u00a0<\/i>require that the wife go back to the name she had just before<\/em> entering the marriage. \u00a0She is allowed to have “a” former name restored. In the case of a second marriage ending in divorce, for example,\u00a0where the wife took her first husband’s surname and now has her second husband’s surname,\u00a0the wife may choose to be restored to her maiden name or to her first husband’s surname.<\/p>\n The name restoration statute is drafted to be gender neutral.\u00a0 It states that a “party” (not the “wife”) may request to be restored to a former name.\u00a0 Although it is extraordinarily rare (I have only seen it twice), after getting married some husbands take their wives’ surnames as their own or take\u00a0a hyphenated version containing their wives’ surnames.\u00a0 Husbands too may request restoration of a former name as part of a divorce.<\/p>\n Most of the time, the name restoration is done as part of the final decree of dissolution of marriage.\u00a0 Under the statute, however, the name change can be made “at any time before the signing of the decree of dissolution” by the court.\u00a0 Id.<\/em>\u00a0 If a person doesn’t want to wait for the divorce to be finalized to have her former name restored, a simple motion filed with the court while the case is pending is sufficient.\u00a0 Once the divorce decree is signed by the judge, however, it is too late.\u00a0 In that case, the name change would have to be accomplished by a separate civil case and not<\/strong> as part of the divorce case.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2016 by Scoresby Family Law \u2013 J. Kyle Scoresby, P.C. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" American women have traditionally taken their husbands’ last names as their own when they marry.\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-1000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorce-process","tag-name-restoration"],"yoast_head":"\n