Just married in Missouri? Two things on this page are worth more than everything else combined. The first is where you order your certified marriage copies, because the state cannot sell you the document your bank and Social Security actually want. The second is a fee waiver most Missouri newlyweds walk straight past, and it can make the license half of this trip free.

The Missouri Mistakes That Cost People Money

Ordering your marriage certificate from the state

This is the big one, and it is specific to Missouri. The state health department will send you a Certified Statement Relating to Marriage, which lists the names, the date and the county where the marriage was recorded. That is not the same thing as your marriage certificate. Missouri says so plainly: an actual certified copy of the original marriage certificate may only be obtained from the Recorder of Deeds in the county that issued your license. Order from the state and you will pay for a document you then have to replace.

Paying a duplicate license fee you did not owe

If you have never held a REAL ID compliant license or ID, Missouri waives the duplicate fee one time when you upgrade, and the Department of Revenue confirms that personal information may be changed as part of that same transaction. Your name change is exactly that. RSMo 302.185 is the statute: the department shall not collect a duplicate license fee for a REAL ID card issued to someone who has never had one. You still owe the license office processing fee, but the $7.50 duplicate fee comes off. Do a plain duplicate today and upgrade later and you have spent the waiver on nothing.

Assuming you can move your maiden name into the middle slot

In plenty of states that is a free move with a marriage certificate. Not on a Missouri license. The Missouri Driver Guide is blunt about it: a middle name change requires a court order. The Department of Revenue accepts your certified marriage certificate for a last name change. If your plan is Firstname Maidenname Marriedname on the license itself, budget for the courthouse.

Trusting the $14.50 figure for your car

The Department of Revenue’s own marriage name-change page still quotes $14.50 for a motor vehicle title. That was the old $8.50 title fee plus a $6.00 processing fee. The processing fee is now $9.00 under RSMo 136.055, so bring $17.50. Turning up $3 short at the counter is a wasted trip.

Buying a single certified copy

At $9 or $10 a copy, the second and third are cheap insurance. Social Security wants to see one if you cannot use the online route, the license office wants to see one, and paperwork does go missing.

Paying for a duplicate when a renewal was due anyway

The Department of Revenue points this out itself: if your license is within 184 days of expiring, you may be able to renew early instead of buying a duplicate now and a renewal a few months later.

Step 1: Certified Copies From the Recorder of Deeds

Missouri keeps marriage records with the county Recorder of Deeds that issued your marriage license, not with a health department and not with the county where you now live. If you were licensed in Jackson County and moved to Springfield, Jackson County still holds your record.

The price barely moves across the state, and there is a statutory reason. RSMo 451.151 sets a $7 fee for every certified copy of a marriage license, collected by the recorder and passed to the children’s trust fund. Each recorder adds its own copy and certification charge on top, which lands almost every county at $9 or $10. The county table further down has the ones people ask about most.

The same statute prices the marriage license itself at $20, which matters only if you are reading this before the wedding. And to be completely clear about the state route: the health department’s Certified Statement Relating to Marriage is a real document, it is just not the certified copy of the certificate that agencies ask for. Our guide to getting a certified marriage certificate covers what a valid copy has to show.

Step 2: Social Security, and Missouri Lets You Do It Online

Start here, because the license office checks your Social Security record while you stand there. The Department of Revenue’s document requirements describe an electronic verification inquiry to Social Security, and if that check fails you are asked for a physical Social Security document or sent to Social Security to sort it out. Doing Social Security first is what keeps that from happening.

The card is free, and Missouri is one of the states where the change can be made online through a personal my Social Security account. Per the Social Security rules you need to be 18 or older, a U.S. citizen with citizenship shown on your Social Security record, holding a valid Missouri license or state ID, with a U.S. mailing address and a state issued marriage certificate, and changing only your last name. Anything else is Form SS-5, by mail or in person, and also free. Our Social Security name change guide has the full federal process.

Missouri has 35 Social Security field offices if you need one:

Office	Address	City	ZIP	Phone
Cape Girardeau	2445 Cape Centre Dr	Cape Girardeau	63703	(866) 931-7077
Chillicothe	1105 S Mitchell Ave	Chillicothe	64601	(877) 405-7668
Columbia	3402 Buttonwood Dr	Columbia	65201	(866) 563-9108
Fosu West – Branch 1	601 E 12th St	Kansas City	64106	(877) 685-5942
Fosu West – Branch 2	601 E 12th St	Kansas City	64106	(877) 685-5942
Fosu West – Branch 3	601 E 12th St	Kansas City	64106	(877) 685-5942
Fosu West – Branch 4	601 E 12th St	Kansas City	64106	(877) 685-5942
Fosu West – Branch 5	601 E 12th St	Kansas City	64106	(877) 685-5942
Hannibal	155 Forrest Drive	Hannibal	63401	(866) 331-7094
Independence	3520 S Noland Rd	Independence	64055	(866) 864-1517
Jefferson City	129 Scott Station Road	Jefferson City	65109	(877) 405-9803
Joplin	4102 S Arizona Ave	Joplin	64804	(866) 964-7421
Kansas City (Gateway)	1800 E Truman Rd	Kansas City	64127	(888) 221-3612
Kansas City North	8620 N Green Hills Rd	Kansas City	64154	(877) 805-6671
Kansas City South	6320 Euclid Ave	Kansas City	64132	(888) 488-9417
Kennett	800 South Bypass	Kennett	63857	(866) 931-4497
Kirksville	1305 Crown Drive	Kirksville	63501	(888) 386-2705
Lebanon	2546 S Jefferson Ave	Lebanon	65536	(866) 931-7104
Maryville	518 W South Hills Dr	Maryville	64468	(877) 833-2731
Nevada	120 S Commerce Dr	Nevada	64772	(888) 808-5441
Park Hills	507 E Main Street	Park Hills	63601	(877) 622-9009
Poplar Bluff	66 Highway 142	Poplar Bluff	63901	(855) 722-3498
Rolla	1813 E 10th St	Rolla	65401	(800) 551-2056
Sedalia	3404 W 10th St	Sedalia	65301	(877) 405-5459
Sikeston	711 York Dr	Sikeston	63801	(866) 964-4261
Springfield	1570 W Battlefield St	Springfield	65807	(877) 850-7824
St Joseph	3715 Beck Rd Ste F	Saint Joseph	64506	(888) 366-6148
St Louis North County	880 Rue St. Francois	Florissant	63031	(866) 931-2871
St Louis Southwest	650 Gravois Bluff Blvd	Fenton	63026	(866) 331-2307
St Louis-Dtn	717 N 16th Street	St Louis	63103	(888) 748-2014
St Louis-Southside	9494 Manchester Rd	Rock Hill	63119	(877) 714-0372
St Peters	4800 Executive Ctr Pky	Saint Peters	63376	(877) 405-3570
St. Louis Central	25 N Oaks Plz	Saint Louis	63121	(888) 810-7291
Union	43 Prairie Dell Plz	Union	63084	(866) 837-1063
West Plains	1612 Imperial Drive	West Plains	65775	(866) 614-2741

Step 3: Your Missouri Driver License

Step 4: Your Car

Missouri State Taxes: One Email

This is the easiest step in the guide, and one of the easiest in the country. The Department of Revenue asks you to email your name change with your full old name, the last four digits of your Social Security number, and your new name, to income@dor.mo.gov. No form, no fee, no portal account. If you would rather speak to someone, individual income tax is on 573-751-3505. Doing it before you file keeps your return from tripping over a name mismatch.

The Missouri Card With a Real Deadline

Most of this guide has no clock on it. This one does, and it is the step Missouri newlyweds forget:

Credential	What Missouri requires
Concealed carry permit	Furnish proof of the name change to the sheriff within 30 days. The duty applies whichever permit you hold: RSMo 571.104 covers the standard five year permit, with a corrected permit issued, and RSMo 571.210 covers lifetime and extended permits, with the sheriff reporting the new name to the permit system within three days

What a Missouri Name Change Costs

What Your County Charges for a Certified Copy

Go to the Recorder of Deeds for the county that issued your marriage license. These are the published certified copy fees for the counties most Missouri newlyweds ask about:

County or city	Certified marriage copy	Office
Jackson (Kansas City)	$10.00	Recorder of Deeds
St. Louis County	$9.00	Recorder of Deeds
City of St. Louis	$12.00 plus postage	Recorder of Deeds
St. Charles	$9.00 plus $2 postage by mail	Recorder of Deeds
Clay	$10.00	Recorder of Deeds
Boone (Columbia)	$9.00	Recorder of Deeds
Greene (Springfield)	$9.00	Recorder of Deeds
Jefferson	$9.00	Recorder of Deeds

If your county is not listed, expect $9 or $10 and call before you drive: the $7 statutory share is fixed statewide, and only the recorder’s own charge moves.

Update Your Voter Registration

Missouri lets you do this one from the sofa: the Secretary of State’s Register to Vote page covers updating your name as well as registering, through the online voter registration application. Paper still works too, sent to your local election authority, which is your county clerk or board of election commissioners. The deadline is the fourth Wednesday before an election, and mailed forms have to be postmarked by that same day.

Licensed Professional? Tell Your Board

Nurses

The Missouri State Board of Nursing takes name changes through its own change of name and address process, with legal documentation of the name change attached. The board’s licensure rules give you 30 days to report the change.

Everyone else licensed in Missouri

Missouri licenses most other professions through the Division of Professional Registration, and each board keeps its own name change form and its own clock. Check your board’s page rather than assuming the license updates itself when the state has your new name on file elsewhere. Nothing about the Social Security or license steps above reaches a professional board automatically.

Which Married Name Can You Take in Missouri?

Three routes, and Missouri draws the line in a place that surprises people:

• Taking your spouse’s last name. Your certified marriage certificate is the name change document. No court, no filing, no fee beyond the copies.
• A hyphenated or combined surname. Social Security will make the change where the new surname is shown on, or can be derived from, the marriage document, and that includes a compound of both spouses’ surnames. Social Security rules
• Moving your maiden name into the middle slot. For your Missouri license this is a court order, not a marriage certificate job. The Missouri Driver Guide lists a middle name change as requiring one.

If you do need the court, the form is the Petition for Change of Name for an adult, filed in the circuit court of the county where you live. Filing fees are set circuit by circuit rather than statewide, so ask your circuit clerk what the total is and what else they expect from you before you file.

That is the Missouri sequence: certified copies from the recorder, Social Security, one license office visit with the REAL ID waiver in mind, then the car, the tax email and your voter record. Our name change checklist covers the banks, cards and accounts that come after, our driver license name change guide covers the counter visit in more depth, and you can compare how other states handle it if you have moved recently.