Minnesota Name Change Laws: The Two-Witness Process Instead of Publication

Minnesota does not use newspaper publication to put a name change on public notice. Instead, under Minn. Stat. §259.10, the applicant must appear personally before the district court and prove their identity through at least two witnesses, a genuinely different model from most states in this guide.

This page covers that two-witness process, what a Minnesota name change costs, the state's 30-day felony-notice window, the criminal-history reporting duty that rides along with an order, and the two separate ways Minnesota lets a divorced spouse restore a former name.

Information last verified on 2026-09-02. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

How to Legally Change Your Name in Minnesota

Under Minn. Stat. §259.10, an applicant petitions the district court in the county where they reside, after satisfying a six-month Minnesota residency requirement. The relevant forms are NAM102 (Application for Name Change and Other Relief), with instructions on NAM101, and NAM106 (Notice to Persons Who Have Had Their Name Changed).

The Two-Witness Requirement Instead of Publication

Minnesota's distinctive requirement is built directly into §259.10: the applicant must appear personally before the court and prove their identity by at least two witnesses. There is no newspaper-publication step to satisfy instead. This is a genuinely different privacy trade-off worth understanding: no public notice exists to alert someone the applicant may be trying to avoid, but the applicant and two witnesses must physically appear before a judge, which is its own kind of burden depending on the applicant's circumstances. A spouse may join the same application to change their own name, or a minor child's name, alongside the primary applicant's.

This requirement belongs to §259.10 and does not reach every route to a new name. The separate post-dissolution path under §259.14 is expressly carved out of it, as explained below.

Fees and Forms

Minnesota sets its district court filing fees by statute rather than by local schedule. Minn. Stat. §357.021, subd. 2(1) sets the fee for the first paper filed in a civil action at $310, raised from $285 by the 2025 Legislature. Confirm the current amount with your district court administrator before filing, since the Judicial Branch publishes its own fee schedule alongside the statute.

Applicants who qualify can use a Fee Waiver affidavit (FEE102) or an In Forma Pauperis affidavit (IFP102) instead of paying the fee. Two narrower waivers exist as well. Section 259.14(b) bars the court from charging any filing fee for a post-dissolution application to restore a birth name, and §259.13, subd. 5(b) bars a fee for a person with a felony conviction who applies within 180 days after a marriage and submits a certified copy of the marriage certificate to the court.

Changing a Minor's Name in Minnesota

A minor's guardian or next of kin makes the application. Both of the child's parents must have notice of the pending application whenever practicable, as determined by the court, a practicability-based standard rather than an absolute requirement. The court must find that the change is in the best interests of the child before granting it.

Felony Convictions: The 30-Day Notice Window

Anyone with a felony conviction, from Minnesota, another state, or federal court, seeking a name change under §259.10, under the divorce-restoration statute §518.27, or under the post-dissolution statute §259.14, must serve notice of the application on the prosecuting authority that obtained the conviction, and on the Minnesota Attorney General if the conviction came from another state or federal court. The court cannot grant the change during the resulting 30-day window. If the prosecutor objects within that window, the applicant must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the request is not fraudulent, is made in good faith, will not injure any person, and will not compromise public safety. Minnesota applies this rule uniformly to any felony conviction; there is no narrower rule limited to sex-offender-registry status. A separate constitutional-rights exception requires the court to approve the change if denying it would violate the applicant's constitutional rights, regardless of a prosecutor's objection.

Criminal History and the BCA Reporting Duty

A second and broader rule sits alongside the felony-notice window, and it is easy to miss because it is not limited to felony convictions. Under Minn. Stat. §259.11(b), when a person applies for a name change the court must determine whether that person has a criminal history in Minnesota or any other state. The court may run a national records search through the FBI by submitting fingerprints and the appropriate fee to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

If the court finds a criminal history, two separate reports come due within ten days after the application is granted. The court must report the name change to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the person whose name was changed must report it as well. The order granting the change has to explain that duty. A person required to report who fails to do so is guilty of a gross misdemeanor, which turns a missed deadline in an otherwise civil filing into a criminal charge.

Section 259.11(c) exempts three routes from that paragraph entirely: a name change requested as part of a marriage-license application under §517.08, a name change in conjunction with a marriage dissolution under §518.27, and an application filed under §259.14.

Restoring Your Name After Divorce

Minnesota gives a divorced spouse two distinct paths. Under §518.27, the court changes a party's name as part of the final decree of dissolution or legal separation, if requested. Separately, under §259.14, a person can file a simplified, standalone application any time after the dissolution, not tied to the timing of the decree, to restore the name that appears on their birth certificate.

Section 259.14(b) strips two of the standard requirements out of that second path. A court may not require a person applying under that section to pay filing fees, and notwithstanding §259.10, a court may not require proof of identity by two witnesses unless that proof is necessary to determine whether the person intends to defraud or mislead the court. A §259.14 application is also outside the §259.11 criminal-history reporting rule. Both paths remain subject to the same felony-notice rule described above.

Changing Your Name After Marriage

Minnesota addresses marriage-based naming directly in the marriage-license statute, §517.08, which lists the full names each party will use after the marriage. A party to the license application who has a felony conviction cannot use that shortcut, and must instead follow the same felony-notice procedure under §259.13 that applies to a standard petition. A 2023 amendment added a fee waiver here, but it is narrower than it sounds: under §259.13, subd. 5(b), a court may not require a person with a felony conviction to pay filing fees for a name-change application, provided that person files within 180 days after the marriage and submits a certified copy of the marriage certificate to the court. It is a waiver for felony-conviction applicants who marry, not a general marriage-based fee waiver.

Related Minnesota Records

For related Minnesota record searches, see Minnesota marriage and divorce records, Minnesota court records, and Minnesota divorce laws for how §518.27's restoration path fits into a dissolution case.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Minnesota name-change law. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fees, forms, and court procedures change; verify current details with your district court or a licensed Minnesota attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation.

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Last updated: 2026-09-02. Fees and forms reflect their published status as of September 2026.