New York does not make you go to court to take your spouse’s name, and it does not charge you to put that name on your car. What it does do is refuse to move until Social Security has moved first, and it puts the whole decision on a form you sign before the wedding.

4 Things You Need to Know

1. Your new name is chosen on the marriage license application, not afterwards. New York asks for the married surname, and optionally a new middle name, in a box on the license itself. The Health Department is blunt about the consequence: “your marriage license cannot be changed to record a surname you decide to use after your marriage.” If the box is already filled in the way you want, your certificate is your proof and no court is involved.

2. Social Security has to be done first, or the DMV rejects you. Form MV-44NC states it in one sentence: “If you have not already changed your name with the Social Security Administration, your application will be rejected.” New York is also not one of the states that can file that change online, so this is the slow step, and it is the first one.

3. Where your certified copy comes from is a $10 question or a $45 one. The town or city clerk that issued your license charges $10. The state charges $30 by mail or $45 online plus a vendor fee, and warns of “significant delays in order processing.”

4. If you married in the five boroughs, the state cannot help you at all. New York City runs its own marriage records through the Office of the City Clerk. The State Health Department does not hold your record, and telling the two apart saves a wasted application.

Step 1: The Certified Copy, and the $10 vs $45 Split

Everything downstream runs on a certified copy of your marriage certificate. Photocopies are not accepted anywhere in this list, so buy more than one while you are ordering.

The state holds marriage records back to 1881 for all of New York State except New York City. NYS DOH: marriage certificates · NYS DOH: getting married in New York State · our guide to certified marriage certificates

Married in the five boroughs? Read this part instead

Manhattan, Brooklyn (Kings), Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island (Richmond) are not part of the state vital records system for marriages. The Office of the City Clerk is your only source, and there are rules about which office holds which years:

• The Manhattan office at 141 Worth Street holds every City Clerk marriage license from 1950 to the present.
• The Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island branches are in person only, and only for licenses issued 1996 to the present.
• Records from 1866 to 1949 sit with DORIS at 31 Chambers Street.
• Book the visit at nyc.gov/cupid, or order by mail with the City Clerk mail request form. nyc.gov/cupid
• Fees are payable by credit card or money order to “The City Clerk of New York”. Personal checks are not accepted.

The $35 extended certificate on the City Clerk fee list is for use outside the United States. For a name change here, the $15 domestic copy is the one you want. NYC Office of the City Clerk: marriage records

Step 2: Social Security, the Step New York Cannot Do Online

Social Security’s internet replacement card policy lists which states can file a marriage name change online. New York is marked yes for a plain replacement card and no for a last name change due to marriage. So it is form SS-5, by mail or at a field office, with your certified marriage certificate and photo identification.

It is free, your Social Security number never changes, and the new card typically arrives within about two weeks. Start it the week of the wedding, because the DMV will not look at you until it is done. SSA: change your name · our Social Security name change guide

New York has 67 Social Security field offices. Here they all are:

Step 3: The DMV, $12.50 and Two Different Routes

New York gives you a mail route and a counter route, and which one you get depends on what kind of document you already hold.

One detail worth the ten seconds it takes: page 3 of MV-44NC is the New York State Voter Registration Application. Mail the name change and you can update your voter record in the same envelope. NYSDMV form MV-44NC · NYSDMV: change information on DMV photo documents · NYSDMV fees · VTL 505

What the visit is like in general is covered in our driver license name change guide.

Step 4: The Car, Which Costs Nothing

The DMV says it plainly: “There is no fee to change your name on your registration documents or title certificate.” It is still a separate trip from the license, because MV-44NC warns that “you will need to apply for a name change on your other DMV-issued documents (registration, title, etc) separately.”

1. Complete form MV-82, the Vehicle Registration/Title Application.
2. Bring your current title or other acceptable proof of ownership.
3. Bring your license, permit or non-driver ID in the new name, or 6 points of proof of identity.
4. Bring the original or a certified copy of your US marriage certificate.
5. Pay nothing, then allow 60 to 90 days for the new title to arrive in the mail. NYSDMV: change information on vehicle registration and title

If You Hold a New York Pistol License

Pistol licenses in New York are issued and amended by the county licensing officer, which is the county clerk or the sheriff depending on where you live, so there is no single statewide counter and no single fee. What is consistent is the route:

• The change is made by amendment, on state form PPB-5, through your issuing county.
• Bring or send your marriage certificate or court order plus a copy of your updated driver license.
• Ask your county what it charges and how quickly it wants the amendment, because both are set locally. Erie County Clerk: handgun transactions

Voter Registration

Update it through the state’s Online Voter Registration portal with a NY.Gov ID, which handles “a new name, new address, or changing your party enrollment”, or mail a signed paper NYS Voter Registration Form to your county board of elections. Two catches: the Board “cannot accept any kind of digital or Adobe-generated signature” on the paper form, and if you live in the five boroughs your record is with the NYC Board of Elections (1-866-VOTE-NYC). Change notices reaching a county board at least 15 days before an election are processed in time for it, so do not leave it to the week of a primary.

What a New York Name Change Costs

Which Married Name New York Lets You Take

This is the part New York does differently from most states. Domestic Relations Law 15 puts the choice on the marriage license application, and lists exactly what you may choose. NY Domestic Relations Law 15

Nobody has to change anything: “A person’s last name (surname) does not automatically change upon marriage, and neither party to the marriage is required to change his or her last name.” If the maiden-to-middle option is the one you are weighing, we have a longer look at the New York maiden-to-middle name change. NYS DOH

Which New York Office Does What

New York State Income Tax

Licensed Professional? You Have 30 Days

This is the one real deadline in the whole New York process, and it is the one people miss.

New York Name Change FAQ

So the New York order runs: certified copies from the clerk who issued your license, Social Security by mail or in person because the online route is closed here, the $12.50 DMV amendment, then a free trip for the registration and title. Our name change checklist covers the banks, employers and accounts that come after, and you can compare how other states handle it if you have moved recently.