Legal name is often the name which an individual is called at birth or which appears on their birth certificate (see birth name) or marriage certificate (in places that have a statute allowing a name change to be recorded at marriage).

A person's legal name typically comprises their given name and a family name. The order varies according to culture and country. There are also country-by-country differences on changes of legal names by marriage, see married name.

United States

Most states still allow the common law of changing one's name through non-fraudulent use and this is actually the most common method since most women who marry do not petition a court under the statutorily prescribed method, but simply use a new name (typically the husband's, a custom which started under the theory of coverture where a woman lost her identity and most rights when she married).^[1] Most state courts have held that a legally assumed name (i.e., for a non-fraudulent purpose) is a legal name and usable as their true name, though assumed names are often not considered the person's technically true name.^[2]

References

1. ↑ In re Natale, 527 S.W.2d 402 (Mo. App. 1975); In re Kruzel, 226 N.W.2d 458 (Wis. 1975).
2. ↑ Stuart v. Board of Supervisors, 295 A.2d 223 (Md. Ct. App. 1972); In re Hauptly, 312 N.E.2d 857 (Ind. 1974); United States v. Cox, 593 F.2d 46 (6th Cir. 1979). See also 10 U.S.C. § 1551 (2006).