Deciding On Restoring Former Name During Divorce | Santa Clarita

When you are going through the divorce process, one of the the decisions you will have to make is whether you want to go back to your former (Maiden) name you had prior to the marriage.  This is both a procedural decision and personal one.

When you file for divorce and are the Petitioner the Petition FL-100 on page 2 at line 7 (i) asks “Petitioner’s former name to be restored to”.  It is here you would indicate whether or not you want to go back to your former name.

But what happens if you are not sure or forget to check this box when you file your petition?  According to Family Code §2080 if a party is requesting their former name be restored in the judgment but forgot or did not indicate that in the Petition, you can still request to have your former name restored and the Court will grant this.

The reasons this comes up is because technically, you cannot ask for something you did not request in your Petition.  This guideline indicates that even if you did not say so in your Petition and you later decide you want to go back to your former name, the Court will grant that.

I had this very thing come up from a client who had prepared their own Petition and did not indicate that they wanted their former name back.  When it came time to the judgment I asked her if she wanted to do so.  She thought that because she had not indicated that she wanted to restore her former name in the Petition that she could not request it in the judgment.

Family Code Section 2080 says that you can still ask for your former name to be restored in the judgment despite not requesting it on the Petition.  This would also hold true if you were the Respondent and did not indicate that on your Response.

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