Oregon Name Change Center

The Oregon Name Change Law Center is a resource on changing your name in the State of Oregon for non-lawyers and pro se litigants. Please let us know if we have omitted a link to an important state resource and we will gladly add it.

Courts and Community Resources

Oregon Name Change Law

CHANGE OF NAME 33.410 Jurisdiction; grounds. Application for change of name of a person may be heard and determined by the probate court or, if the circuit court is not the probate court, the circuit court if its jurisdiction has been extended to include this section pursuant to ORS 3.275 of the county in which the person resides. The change of name shall be granted by the court unless the court finds that the change is not consistent with the public interest. [Amended by 1967 c.534 s.11; 1975 c.733 s.1]

33.420 Notice of application and decree; certificate; minor children. (1) Before decreeing a change of name, except as provided in ORS 109.360, the court shall require public notice of the application to be given, that all persons may show cause why the same should not be granted. The court shall also require public notice to be given of the change after the entry of the decree.

(2) Before decreeing a change of name in the case of a minor child the court shall require that, in addition to the notice required under subsection (1) of this section, written notice be given to the parents of the child, both custodial and noncustodial, and to any legal guardian of the child. [Amended by 1983 c.369 s.6; 1997 c.872 s.22]

33.430 Name of child on birth certificate, how changed; court conference with child. (1) In the case of a change, by court order, of the name of the parents of any minor child, if the child's birth certificate is on file in this state, the State Registrar of the Center for Health Statistics, upon receipt of a certified copy of the court order changing the name, together with the information required to locate the original birth certificate of the child, shall prepare a new birth certificate for the child in the new name of the parents of the child. The name of the parents as so changed shall be set forth in the new certificate, in place of their original name.

(2) The evidence upon which the new certificate was made, and the original certificate, shall be sealed and filed by the State Registrar of the Center for Health Statistics, and may be opened only upon demand of the person whose name was changed, if of legal age, or by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.

(3) When a change of name by parents will affect the name of their child or children under subsection (1) of this section, the court, on its own motion or on request of a child of the parents, may take testimony from or confer with the child or children and may exclude from the conference the parents and other persons if the court finds that such action would be in the best interests of the child or children. However, the court shall permit an attorney for the parents to attend the conference, and the conference shall be reported. If the court finds that a change of name would not be in the best interests of the child, the court may provide in the order changing the name of the parents that such change of name shall not affect the child, and a new birth certificate shall not be prepared for the child. [Amended by 1983 c.369 s.7]

33.440 Application by minor child; court conference. When a minor child applies for a change of name under ORS 33.410, the court may, upon its own motion, confer with the child and may exclude from the conference the parents and other persons if the court finds that such action would be in the best interests of the child. However, the court shall permit an attorney for the child to attend the conference, and the conference shall be reported. [1983 c.369 s.5]