Oklahoma Statue Is Clear on This
Video Transcribed:
Who can file for a name change in Oklahoma? I’m an attorney in Tulsa, OK James Wirth, and we’re talking about name changes under Oklahoma law. The question is who can file one? The statute’s pretty clear on that, and the statute that we’re dealing with here, it’s actually Chapter 33 of Title 12, and it’s section 1631 through 1637.
That’s the change of name chapter in Oklahoma law. It says that any natural person, so that’s the first part, natural person. What does that mean? That means that it can’t be a legal entity.
So this is not a proper procedure for an LLC change of the name of a corporation or a nonprofit. This is for a natural person. So any natural person, that’s the first requirement.
The second requirement is been a resident of the state of Oklahoma for 30 days prior to filing and a resident of the county in which they file for 30 days prior to filing. All right. Then the last requirement is that they cannot be subject to the Sex Offender Registration Act. Okay. So who can?
Any person who’s a resident of the county for at least 30 days who is not subject to sex offender registration, that’s who can, which means that minor children can file to have a name change. However, they don’t do it themselves. They do it through their next friend or their guardian. What’s the next friend? That generally is going to be the parent that files on their behalf.
Now, there are extra requirements that aren’t in the statute when it’s a parent because the other parent or other custodians or other people with rights to the child potentially have constitutional rights that must be accounted for. So there’s common law that requires that even though it’s not in the statute.
So does have to be notice given there. But for answering the question of who can file, it’s pretty simple. Oklahoma law is very broad. Anybody can file for the name change as long as you’re a real person and you live in the county and you’re not required to register as a sex offender.
If you’ve got questions about that, how to go through the process, or anything else, we do have more videos that we’re going to go over that cover each part of that process, and a lot of those questions. So if you want to talk to an attorney in Tulsa at my office you can get that scheduled by going to MakeLawEasy.com.
