Massachusetts Name Change Laws: Petitions Are Now Impounded by Default

Massachusetts changed its name-change law significantly on November 25, 2025. Before that date, G.L. c.210 §13 leaned toward requiring public newspaper notice of a petition. As amended, the default has flipped: public notice now requires the court's good-cause approval to require it at all, and every petition filed on or after November 25, 2025 is impounded, meaning sealed from public inspection, automatically. Anyone researching Massachusetts name-change law from an older source is very likely reading the pre-amendment rule.

This page explains the current, post-amendment law: what impoundment actually means, how the adult and minor petition process works, what it costs, and the separate statutes covering divorce restoration and marriage-based surnames.

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

The November 2025 Change: What's Different

Before November 25, 2025, G.L. c.210 §13 pointed toward public notice as something close to a default step, and required a probation-commissioner report on the petitioner before a name change could be decreed. As amended and effective that date, the statute now provides that the court may, for good cause shown, require public notice, meaning notice is no longer assumed and must instead be affirmatively ordered. A new subsection (b) goes further: the petition itself, along with all filed pleadings, papers, documents, and docket entries, is not available for public inspection unless the court, for good cause, orders otherwise, or the petitioner requests access. That is a real, structural change from the earlier public-record default, not just a tweak to the notice rule.

The amendment came through what is commonly referred to as "An Act protecting personal security," enacted as part of a fiscal year 2025 supplemental budget signed by Governor Healey. Advocacy groups have described it as targeted at privacy and safety for transgender individuals and domestic-violence survivors. This is a genuinely recent development, only a few months old as of this writing, so date any statement about Massachusetts name-change privacy explicitly and do not describe the state as a publication-by-default jurisdiction without this correction.

How to Legally Change Your Name in Massachusetts

Under G.L. c.210 §12, a petition is heard by the Probate and Family Court in the county where the petitioner resides, and the change "shall be granted unless such change is inconsistent with public interests." The petition is filed on a form sometimes referenced as CJP 909 and elsewhere as CJP 27 in different court-practice materials; confirm the current form number with your Probate and Family Court before filing. Massachusetts's name-change statute contains no explicit felony-conviction bar or sex-offender-registry restriction; the operative standard for both adult and minor petitions is simply whether the change is "inconsistent with public interests" under G.L. c.210 §12.

Filing Fee

The filing fee is $165, made up of a $150 filing fee and a $15 surcharge. If the court orders newspaper publication, expect the total to run up to $180, including a $15 citation fee. A standard indigency fee-waiver process is available.

Changing a Minor's Name in Massachusetts

There is no separate statutory subsection for a minor's petition within §12 itself. Instead, court practice, under the Probate and Family Court's own Uniform Practice XXXV, treats the minor as the petitioner, with a parent or legal guardian presenting the petition as the child's "next friend." A certified copy of the minor's birth certificate is required. The same "not inconsistent with public interests" standard from the adult provision applies, since no separate minor best-interest test appears in the statute's text.

Restoring Your Name After Divorce

Divorce-related name restoration lives in a different chapter than the general name-change statute, in the Divorce title rather than Chapter 210. G.L. c.208 §23 lets the court granting the divorce allow a spouse to resume a maiden name or a former spouse's surname. The statute's text is gendered, referring to "a woman," a holdover that should be read as applying to whichever divorcing spouse is requesting restoration. The decision is discretionary, using "may" rather than "shall."

Changing Your Name After Marriage

Massachusetts is one of the minority of states that does codify a marriage-based naming right. Under G.L. c.46 §1D, part of the Vital Statistics chapter rather than the name-change chapter, each party to a marriage may adopt any surname: either party's present or birth-given surname, retaining or resuming a present or birth-given surname, or any hyphenated combination. This happens through the marriage-license application process itself, with no separate court petition required.

Related Massachusetts Records

For related Massachusetts record searches, see Massachusetts marriage and divorce records, Massachusetts court records, and Massachusetts divorce laws for how the §23 restoration path fits into a divorce case.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Massachusetts name-change law, including a significant amendment effective November 25, 2025. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fees, forms, and court procedures change; verify current details with your Probate and Family Court or a licensed Massachusetts 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.