South Carolina allows for women in our community to change their names before
they have sex reassignment surgery.
I was goofin' around the site the last couple days and was reading your page
with links on how to change personal information on driver's licenses. I noticed
that there's no information listed for South Carolina. Having lived through
the experience (with only minimal scarring, no less), I can provide some information
on that.
This is a link to some general information on SC licenses:
http://www.scdmvonline.com/DLgeneral.aspx
In there (about halfway down) is information on how to change your name.
It requires completing Form 4057 (available in PDF at http://www.scdmvonline.com/forms/4057.pdf),
submitting a certified copy of your court order and paying a fee. Form 4057
is used for licenses as well as car registrations. Name changes must be applied
for in person at a DMV office.
Changing sex designation requires proof that you have completed surgery.
SCDMV headquarters told me that a letter from your surgeon attesting that
you have completed surgery is required before your sex designator will be
changed. As with name changes, this must be done at a DMV office.(My own experiences
varied somewhat from this [especially since I had previously been licensed
in SC], but since they were atypical, I'll not really go into them here, other
than to say some offices are real sticklers about it, and other offices aren't
nearly as anal-retentive about it. Let's just say that having been through
it in two states has been just about enough to discourage me from ever moving
to another state.... :) )
About name-change in SC, it's handled as a Family Court matter. You file
with the Clerk of Court in your county of residence and it's then handed over
to family court. Here's the pertinent section of SC judicial code, which has
more information:
http://www.scstatehouse.net/code/t15c049.htm
The filing fee is $70.00. Here's a sample of a name-change application from
one SC county, which will give you an idea of how the procedure goes:
http://www.orangeburgcounty.org/DownLoads/cocdocs/NAMECHAN.pdf
(PDF: requires reader)
[I'm doing all this research third-person because I had my name changed in
Florida, where it's very different.]
As always, it's most excellent advice to consult an attorney on this matter.
The money you spend will be well worth the headaches you'll save, especially
in a culturally-backwards state like this one! :)
