Cannot Get ID Due to Discrepancy Between Social Security Card and Birth Certificate

Hello All - I'm at wits end here in South Carolina. My husband and I moved to SC and purchased a home here. This is our legal home and only home. We are trying to get SC driver's license, registration changed to SC, pay our taxes for the cars - We cannot be listed on the tax rolls until all the above reflects our SC home address. I'm going to use silly names to show you what's happening. My birth cert reads Colleen Angela Smith. When I got married in CA, I changed my name to Angela Smith Jones (my husband being the "Jones" part). I dropped my first name because it's never been used. SS changed my card to reflect my new married name Angela Smith Jones and you can trace that right back to my original birth name. I am retired and get social security checks. SC DMV is refusing to issue a license and registration because my first name is not the same on both documents. They said to go to SS and ask that they issue a new card with my birth first name: Colleen Angela Smith Jones. SS says they cannot do that unless I go to a court judge and pay for name change. Take this down the line and you see my dilema. Everything that identifies me would have to change, including things like the deed on our new house. If I am legal by federal standards - how can they force this issue?? Time is running out for deadlines SC has issued and I don't know what to do. But I don't think I should have to change my "legal" name to do this. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

The answer is that you can get a change of last name to your husband's name in marriage, or back to your maiden name in the case of divorce.
Any other change requires a court order. You will need to decide what you want to use for a name and get it legally changed to that and then send the documents (get a bunch of certified copies of the order) and fix all the mess you've made by lying about your legal name to people.

States have tightened up the identity requirements for issuing licenses quite a bit. Unfortunately, this snags women mostly because in our culture it is women who change their name most often. My wife had to produce a birth certitificate, her first marriage license, divorce decree ordering her name changed to a third name, and then her marriage license to me in order to prove her legal right to use her current last name (my last name). That is what my state requires, and they must be official / certified copies of these documents. They don't just accept what is on a SS card.

Personally, I think women should stop changing their names and male children could carry the father's last name and female children could carry the mother's last name. But we have the culture we have, and this is the result. It is important that states not issue identity documents under false names, for obvious reasons.

Excuse me? fix all the mess you've made by lying about your legal name to people. I have lied to noone. What kind of forum is this? As a senior member you make a statement like that?

The term "senior member" means "has posted more than 100 times". That's all.

This is a public forum, which means that any Tom, Dick or Harry can post here.

So I guess this means that someone can be rude and obnoxious and downright mean and no one can do a thing about it?

Quote:

---

Quoting harplady

---

Excuse me? fix all the mess you've made by lying about your legal name to people. I have lied to noone. What kind of forum is this? As a senior member you make a statement like that?

---

although flyingron was curt, he was correct. If your marriage licence was issued after 01/01/2009 you can change your middle and last names but not your first name

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/birth...-01-Merged.pdf
from page 2

Quote:

---

• Parties to the marriage may not change their first name on the
marriage license. Persons desiring to change their first name
must do so by obtaining a court ordered name change through the
superior court, pursuant to Title 8 (commencing with Section 1275)
of Part 3 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

---

Prior to that, you could only change your last name through the marriage process.

Quote:

---

If I am legal by federal standards -

---

technically, you aren't. You have registered a pseudonym with them.

Excuse me, but you did LIE about your name. You told people your name was different than what it legally was. That's why you have a problem. As I said, if you can't get people to take your word as to what your name should be, you'll have to get a court order changing it. The SSA is not an arbiter of legal names.

harplady, as nice as it would be if somebody could swoop in with a magic wand and change the world so that nobody can ever be mean to you (or me), in the real world we will inevitably encounter rudeness at times.

flyingron, you're not living up to your usual standard here. Lots of people go through life using a name other than their first name. That could be a middle name, or something completely different. You ever hear of a guy called "Jeb Bush"? Did you know that his name is John? Not Jeb? The name he uses is based on his initials - John Ellis Bush. Is he a big fat liar?

Quote:

---

Excuse me, but you did LIE about your name.

---

No, she didn't. She used an alias. It's completely legal, so long as you're not doing it in order to commit fraud. My given name isn't Missy. It's not even Melissa. It's Margaret, but I'm called Missy by so many people that I had to register it as an alias at my bank because clients sometimes forget and make my checks payable to Missy instead of Margaret. Would you call that lying to people about my name?

Harplady, Ron is correct. You'd do well to review the document JK refers to, then follow the procedures necessary to get a legal name change and get yourself sorted out.