Illinois Name Change Laws: How to Legally Change Your Name

Illinois substantially overhauled its name-change law in 2024 and again in 2025. Public Act 103-1063, effective March 1, 2025, repealed the newspaper publication requirement entirely and created a court-file impoundment section in its place. A separate and older requirement, 735 ILCS 5/21-102, obliges every petitioner to file a sworn criminal-history disclosure, and for a petitioner with a felony or misdemeanor record, the State's Attorney may seek an Illinois State Police criminal-history-transcript update before the hearing.

Current law sets residency at three months and makes it a felony for a person registered as a sex, violent, or arsonist offender to petition during their registration period, with four named exceptions. It also bars anyone still serving a felony sentence from filing at all. If you read an older description of Illinois name-change law that mentions publishing a newspaper notice or a six-month residency rule, it is out of date.

Information last verified on 2026-08-11. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How to Legally Change Your Name in Illinois

An adult files a name-change petition in circuit court, in the county of residence, under 735 ILCS 5/21-101. Illinois requires three months' residency in the state at the time of the hearing or entry of the order. The Illinois Courts system maintains a statewide approved NC-A form series, including instructions, the Request for Name Change, a Motion to Impound, an Order to Impound, and the Order for Name Change itself.

Filing fees are set circuit by circuit rather than statewide, generally reported in the $250 to $390 range depending on county. A fee waiver is available for petitioners who qualify financially.

Changing a Minor's Name in Illinois

A petitioner may include minor children in the petition, but the standard is demanding. Under 735 ILCS 5/21-101(c), an order may be entered as to a minor only if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the change is necessary to serve the best interest of the child. That is a higher burden than the preponderance standard that governs most civil matters.

Notice is mandatory before any such judgment. Under 735 ILCS 5/21-103.5, actual notice and an opportunity to be heard must be given to any parent whose parental rights have not been previously terminated and to any person who has been allocated parental responsibilities under Section 602.5 or 602.7 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. If one of those people lives outside Illinois, notice follows the procedure in 735 ILCS 5/21-104.

In weighing best interest, the statute directs the court to consider all relevant factors, including the wishes of the child's parents or the persons acting as parents with physical custody; the child's own wishes and reasons; the child's interaction and interrelationship with parents, step-parents, siblings, step-siblings, or others significantly affecting the child's best interest; and the child's adjustment to home, school, and community. Those four are named in the statute, but the list is illustrative rather than closed, so a judge may weigh other circumstances that bear on the child.

Restoring a Former Name After Divorce

Illinois offers the most streamlined divorce-restoration mechanism found in this batch of states. Under 750 ILCS 5/413(c), a person resuming a former or maiden name through a dissolution-of-marriage judgment is explicitly not required to file an Article XXI name-change petition or provide notice by publication. The restoration is built directly into the divorce judgment itself.

No Publication Requirement

Illinois removed newspaper publication in the 2025 overhaul. The publication section, 735 ILCS 5/21-103, now carries the note "(Source: P.A. 103-605, eff. 7-1-24. Repealed by P.A. 103-1063, eff. 3-1-25.)" and has no operative text left. The criminal-history disclosure under 735 ILCS 5/21-102 is a separate, older requirement rather than the publication rule's replacement; that section's source note runs through Public Acts 102-538, 102-1133, 103-605, and 103-609 and does not include 103-1063.

Because there is no publication requirement left to waive, privacy protection instead runs through the impoundment section the 2025 act created, 735 ILCS 5/21-103.8. A petitioner may move to impound the court file on a sworn statement that public disclosure would cause hardship and negatively affect health or safety. The section names the qualifying grounds: transgender status, adoptee status, surviving domestic or intimate-partner abuse, surviving gender-based violence, surviving human trafficking, refugee status, special-immigrant status granted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, having been subjected to conversion therapy, or a grant of asylum. Supporting documents may be attached, but the section expressly accepts the petitioner's own attestation instead.

The same section also lets a petitioner leave their address out of the filed documents and designate an alternative address for service, where disclosure would risk harm to the petitioner, family, or household members, or would reveal the confidential location of a domestic violence shelter.

Impoundment is not total concealment. Even with the file impounded, 21-103.8 requires the name change to be reported to the Illinois State Police, which updates the criminal-history transcript and any offender registration for a petitioner 18 or older to reflect both the new name and the former one. A granted impoundment also does not automatically make a new name confidential with the Social Security Administration or the U.S. State Department; those agencies apply their own separate rules for what they will and will not disclose.

Criminal History and Offender Restrictions

Start with eligibility, not paperwork. Under 735 ILCS 5/21-101(b-1), a person who has been convicted of a felony offense in Illinois or any other state, and whose sentence has not been completed, terminated, or discharged, is not permitted to file a name-change petition in the courts of this State unless pardoned for that offense. This is an absolute bar rather than a disclosure obligation: someone still on felony probation, parole, or mandatory supervised release cannot file, and no sworn statement cures it. The bar lifts once the sentence is completed, terminated, or discharged.

Every petitioner who may file must submit a sworn statement disclosing felony or misdemeanor adjudications or convictions. Where that statement shows an unpardoned conviction or adjudication, an arrest on which no charge was filed, or a pending felony or misdemeanor charge, 735 ILCS 5/21-102.5 requires the circuit clerk to promptly serve the petition on the State's Attorney and the Illinois State Police. The State's Attorney may then file a written objection, served on the petitioner and stating its basis with specificity. Where the petitioner is a defendant on a pending criminal charge, or has an unpardoned conviction for identity theft, aggravated identity theft, or certain sexual offenses against minors, that objection must be filed within 30 days of service on the State's Attorney. The State's Attorney may also ask the court to require an Illinois State Police criminal-history-transcript update before the hearing. A petition carrying any criminal history is therefore potentially adversarial rather than a routine filing.

Separately, a person required to register under Illinois's Sex Offender Registration Act, the Murderer and Violent Offender Against Youth Registration Act, or the Arsonist Registration Act commits a felony by petitioning for a name change during the period they are required to register. That felony bar has four specific, named exceptions: a change due to marriage, a change based on a sincerely held religious belief, a change tied to human-trafficking-victim status, or a change tied to gender identity. Anyone with a registration history who falls outside those four exceptions should not file a petition without first speaking to an attorney, since the statute treats a violation as a felony rather than a simple denial.

Marriage-Based Name Changes in Illinois

Illinois has no dedicated statute granting a name change based on marriage. A provision in the Election Code exempts a marriage- or dissolution-based name from a candidate's ballot "formerly known as" disclosure requirement, but that is a narrow ballot-disclosure carve-out, not a name-change grant mechanism. A spouse who wants a new name at marriage does so by custom, using the marriage certificate with agencies like the Social Security Administration and the DMV. See name change after marriage for those federal-level steps.

Related Illinois Records

For the marriage certificate or divorce judgment that documents an Illinois name change, see Illinois marriage and divorce records. For how Illinois's court system handles filings generally, see Illinois court records. For the broader dissolution process, see Illinois divorce laws. For the full agency-by-agency update checklist once a name change is granted, see the name change checklist.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Illinois name-change law. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fees, forms, and statutory requirements change, most recently in 2024 and 2025; verify current details with your circuit court clerk or a licensed Illinois attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-08-11. Fees and forms reflect their published status as of August 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Illinois still require newspaper publication for a name change?

No. Public Act 103-1063, effective March 1, 2025, repealed the publication section, 735 ILCS 5/21-103. Privacy is instead protected through an optional motion to impound the court file under 735 ILCS 5/21-103.8.

Can I change my name in Illinois while I am still serving a felony sentence?

No. Under 735 ILCS 5/21-101(b-1), a person convicted of a felony in Illinois or any other state whose sentence has not been completed, terminated, or discharged is not permitted to file a name-change petition in an Illinois court unless pardoned for that offense. That includes someone still on probation, parole, or mandatory supervised release.

How long do I need to live in Illinois before filing a name-change petition?

Three months' Illinois residency at the time of the hearing or entry of the order, under the current law effective March 1, 2025.

Do both parents have to be notified before a child's name is changed in Illinois?

Yes. Under 735 ILCS 5/21-103.5, actual notice and an opportunity to be heard must be given to any parent whose parental rights have not been previously terminated and to anyone allocated parental responsibilities under Section 602.5 or 602.7 of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act before a judgment may be entered. The court must also find by clear and convincing evidence that the change is necessary to serve the child's best interest.

How much does it cost to change your name in Illinois?

Fees are set circuit by circuit, generally reported in the $250 to $390 range depending on county. A fee waiver is available for petitioners who qualify financially.

Can a registered sex offender change their name in Illinois?

Generally no. Petitioning during the required registration period is a felony, with four exceptions: marriage, sincerely held religious belief, human-trafficking-victim status, or gender identity.

Do I need to file a separate petition to resume my maiden name after an Illinois divorce?

No. Under 750 ILCS 5/413(c), resuming a former or maiden name through your dissolution judgment does not require a separate Article XXI petition or publication notice.