NYC just made it easier for people to change their name in court

A New York City teen decided last year to change their name so it would match their gender identity.

But even though  New York has some of the strongest laws in the country for people who want to change their name, a court clerk refused to sign off on the paperwork.

With help from Legal Services NYC, the teen, Lain Nelson, filed a legal challenge.

About a month ago, they reached a settlement with the New York City civil clerk’s office that’s supposed to make the process better for all city residents.

The deal requires the civil court clerk’s office in New York City to give new instructions to the employees tasked with reviewing petitions to ensure they’re following the law. The office also agreed to publish more information about the process for people who want to change their name.

“If you feel like your name, you might not necessarily think about it,” said Nelson. “But if you don't, then all of a sudden, being called a name can change who you are.”

Nelson, 19, said they had been thinking about changing their name for years. They wanted to pick a name they were comfortable with both on the days when they feel more masculine and when they feel more feminine.

“In some ways it's terrifying,” Nelson said, “because it's just a word, but it also feels like I'm choosing my identity.”

Nelson is from New York City and just finished their sophomore year of college at Cornell University, where they’re studying computer science and language inclusivity in artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT. In between classes, they spent their second year of college navigating the complex legal process of officially changing their first name to Lain in the court system — meeting with lawyers, filling out paperwork, getting documents notarized and visiting government offices.

Initially, a clerk in Manhattan’s civil court refused to accept Nelson’s application because it didn’t include sufficient proof of address, according to court records. Nelson had heard that others were facing similar bureaucratic struggles and wanted to push the court system to make the process easier, even if it meant their own application would take longer.

“On one hand, I knew that I didn't want to wait to change my name, as nobody does,” Nelson said. “But on the other hand, it was something that I thought was worth fighting for.”

A pattern of denials

Under New York law, someone who wants to change their name is supposed to submit a petition to the court that contains some basic information, like their birthday and age. The petition is also supposed to include details meant to determine whether they are trying to change their name to commit fraud, interfere with someone else’s rights or avoid debts and obligations — such as whether they have any liens or owe child support. Applicants must also submit a birth certificate or other proof of birth. The filing fee is $65 in New York City’s civil courts and $210 in other supreme and county courts, but petitioners can ask for a waiver and might also be able to get the cost covered by their attorney.

State lawmakers passed legislation in 2021 intended to remove barriers for New Yorkers who want to change their name or sex designation on official documents. The Gender Recognition Act allowed New Yorkers to put an “X” on their driver’s license instead of “male” or “female” and ended a requirement that people publish a notice of name change in their local newspaper, among other updates. It also more clearly outlined the process for changes of name and sex designation.

But Nelson’s attorney, Julian Castronovo, said court employees continued to ask for more documents that weren’t required even after the new legislation took effect. Castronovo sometimes spent hours at the court clerk’s office, trying to get their clients’ petitions approved.

“It can be so frustrating to have something that's supposed to be easy just be made more complicated,” said Castronovo, acting deputy director of the LGBTQ/HIV Advocacy Project at Brooklyn Legal Services, a branch of Legal Services NYC.

The attorney said court clerks regularly refused to accept their clients’ petitions before the settlement was signed this spring.

“It was every time,” Castronovo said. “If it didn't include photo ID, proof of address, whatever else the clerk wanted that day, denied.”

For many of Castronovo’s clients, not being able to change their name can have cascading consequences, the attorney said. Many are low-income and regularly have to present an ID at a shelter, at the social services office, or to apply for an apartment or job.

“They're showing an ID that has a differently gendered name or presentation of themselves in all of those instances, which then subjects them to, at best, bias, at middle, discrimination, and at worst, violence,” Castronovo said.

After months of negotiations, the state Office of Court Administration agreed to share new guidance with New York City's civil court clerks, which outlines what information is required and what documents are merely optional. The city’s civil court system also created an instruction sheet for applicants, which explains what materials they’ll need to provide and what additional documents might be helpful to bring when they or their attorneys go to court.

In response to questions about the allegations in Nelson’s legal challenge, Office of Court Administration Spokesperson Al Baker referred Gothamist to the settlement, which he said in a statement is “clear and self-explanatory as to the path forward on this important matter.”

Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who sponsored the 2021 Gender Recognition Act, said he was “extremely disturbed” to hear some court employees have made the name change process “unnecessarily burdensome.”

“The process of changing your birth name or gender assigned at birth to match your true identity is already taxing enough on numerous levels, including the lengthy paperwork, not to mention the emotional toll it must exact,” Hoylman-Sigal said in a statement.

Nelson said they have already gone to the social security office to put the first name Lain on their card, but there are still plenty of documents to get through, including their high school diploma and their passport. It will take time to gradually update everything, but Nelson said they’re excited to hear their old name less and less and their new name more and more.

“I love seeing it. I love saying it. It feels like my name,” they said. “When I imagine other people saying that name, I just, I — it's just a little bit of a warm feeling, because it feels like something that belongs to me.”