South Carolina Name Change Laws: Family Court, SLED Checks, and the DSS Package

South Carolina is one of the few states that routes every name change, adult, minor, and divorce-related, through Family Court rather than probate or civil court. It is also one of the most document-heavy states in the country: a standard adult petition requires a SLED fingerprint and criminal background check, a DSS Central Registry child-abuse-and-neglect screening, a child-support and alimony affidavit, and a SLED sex-offender-registry screening statement, all filed together with the petition.

This page covers that full documentation package, the exemptions for marriage-based and divorce-related name changes, the minor process, and the serious criminal penalties attached to a false affidavit.

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

How to Change Your Name as an Adult in South Carolina

An adult petition is filed in writing with a Family Court judge in the appropriate judicial circuit, under S.C. Code § 15-49-10(A). The petitioner must have been a South Carolina resident for at least six months, and the petition must set out the reason for the change, the petitioner's age, place of residence and birth, and the name they want to be known by. If the clerk has no form for your county and you write the petition yourself, those are the items it has to set out; PDFelement can turn a Word draft into a PDF and edit its text, though the judge decides what the court accepts.

Section 15-49-20(A) requires the petition to be accompanied by four attachments: the results of a SLED fingerprint and criminal background check; a South Carolina Department of Social Services Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect screening statement; an affidavit disclosing any court orders for child support or alimony; and a SLED sex-offender-registry screening statement. A fifth item, § 15-49-20(A)(5), is an affidavit confirming current South Carolina residency and its six-month duration, and it is inside that item that the court's domestic-violence waiver of the residency requirement sits. Closing language at the end of subsection (A), placed after item (5), then exempts several categories of petitioner from the whole of subsection (A), described further below.

The filing fee is $150, under the family court fee schedule's «Name Change and Correction of Birth Record Actions» category, confirmed by both the fee statute (§ 15-49-30) and the official fee page. Whether the fee itself can be waived for an indigent petitioner was not confirmed on the official fee-schedule materials.

Changing a Minor's Name in South Carolina

A parent petitions on the minor's behalf. Under § 15-49-10(B), the other parent must be named as a party to the action, or, if there is no other parent, the child must be named as a party, and the court appoints a guardian ad litem to represent the child's interests. The court grants the petition if it finds the change is in the best interest of the child, a standard South Carolina applies explicitly here, unlike in some other states.

Publication: Not Required, Background Checks Instead

No publication or public-notice requirement was found anywhere in Chapter 49 for a standard adult petition. Instead of publication, South Carolina substitutes the mandatory background-check and screening package described above. Separately, after granting a name change, the court can seal the entire file at the petitioner's request if it finds that the safety of the petitioner or their child or ward warrants it; once sealed, no court record of the petition, proceeding, or order is made public.

Restrictions: Mandatory Background Checks and the False-Affidavit Penalties

Every standard petition requires the SLED fingerprint and criminal background check and the SLED sex-offender-registry screening statement described above; there is no domestic-violence or other exemption from these two specific requirements. Falsifying the required affidavit that the petitioner has never been convicted under another name is itself a crime: up to a $100 fine or six months' imprisonment. The enhanced penalty is narrower than it is often described: under § 15-49-20(H), a person convicted of an offense requiring registration with SLED's Sex Offender Registry who falsifies that affidavit «in order to obtain employment, including employment with a child daycare center, or other entity that cares for vulnerable individuals» faces up to 10 years' imprisonment. The trigger is falsifying the affidavit to get that kind of work, not using a name change to evade registration generally.

The six-month South Carolina residency requirement itself, not merely the paperwork proving it, can be waived by the court. Section 15-49-20(A)(5) says the court «may waive the six months' residency requirement» for a petitioner who provides evidence that they are a victim of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, harassment, a sexual offense, trafficking in persons, or other abuse, and who is currently in reasonable fear for their safety. A survivor who has recently relocated to South Carolina can therefore ask the court to excuse the six months rather than wait it out. The statute lists the kinds of evidence that qualify, including law enforcement or court records, documentation from an organization serving victims of abuse, or documentation from a religious, medical, or other professional the petitioner turned to for help. The waiver reaches that residency requirement and nothing else: the fingerprint and background check, the DSS registry screening, and the sex-offender-registry screening carry no domestic-violence exception.

Name Restoration After Divorce

South Carolina's divorce-restoration provision is written as a targeted carve-out within the general statute, but it does more than just exempt someone from the background-check package. Section 15-49-20(J) states that the requirements of that section do not apply to a person wishing to resume a maiden name as a result of a domestic action filed in Family Court, and that a Family Court judge may authorize that name change in another order, including but not limited to an order for separate support and maintenance or a final divorce decree. In practice, this means the mechanism can be built directly into the divorce decree or a separate support order, without the full background-check filing. The statute's «her maiden name» language is original, gendered wording that has not been updated.

Name Changes After Marriage

Marriage-based name changes are exempt from the full background-check package, but the exemption is codified inside § 15-49-20 itself rather than as a separate freestanding statute. Closing language at the end of subsection (A), sitting after item (5), provides that «this subsection does not apply» to a minor child whose parent petitions under § 15-49-10(B), to a person returning to a maiden or former married name in a divorce action, or to a person seeking to change his or her name as a result of marriage. Because that sentence operates on subsection (A) as a whole, the entire attachment package drops away for a marriage-based petition. The cite to give is § 15-49-20(A); item (A)(5) alone is only the residency affidavit, not the background-check requirements. No separate marriage-license-based vital-records mechanism was found outside Chapter 49; in practice, most marriage-based changes still happen administratively through the marriage certificate at SSA and the DMV rather than through a Family Court filing.

Related South Carolina Records

A South Carolina name change often comes up alongside other state records. See South Carolina marriage and divorce records for how to obtain the certified copies agencies require as proof, South Carolina court records for how a sealed Family Court name-change file fits into the state's public-records rules, and South Carolina divorce laws for how name restoration fits into a divorce case.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about South Carolina name-change law. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fees, forms, and procedures change; verify current details with your county Family Court or a licensed South Carolina 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

What court handles a name change in South Carolina?

Family Court handles every name change in South Carolina, adult, minor, and divorce-related, unlike most states, which use a probate or civil court for adult petitions.

What background checks does South Carolina require for a name change?

A standard adult petition requires a SLED fingerprint and criminal background check, a DSS Central Registry child-abuse-and-neglect screening, and a SLED sex-offender-registry screening statement, all filed with the petition.

How much does it cost to change your name in South Carolina?

$150, under the Family Court fee schedule's name-change category.

Is a marriage-based name change exempt from South Carolina's background-check requirements?

Yes. Closing language at the end of S.C. Code § 15-49-20(A) provides that the subsection does not apply to a person seeking to change his or her name as a result of marriage, so the full documentation package required for a standard petition does not apply.

What happens if I lie on a South Carolina name-change affidavit?

It is a crime. Falsifying the required no-prior-conviction affidavit carries up to a $100 fine or 6 months in jail, or both. It rises to up to 10 years under § 15-49-20(H) if a person required to register as a sex offender falsifies the affidavit in order to obtain employment, including work at a child daycare center or another entity that cares for vulnerable individuals.

Do I need to publish notice of my South Carolina name change?

No. South Carolina has no publication requirement; the mandatory background-check and screening package serves that function instead.