Change your name in Nevada — one publication, not three weeks.
Nevada law was changed in 2017. The notice of your petition now has to run in the newspaper one time, not once a week for three weeks — a point most sites still get wrong, and one that can triple what you expect to pay. TruPoint prepares your petition, notice and proposed order for $400, for an adult or a child, anywhere in Nevada — in English or Vietnamese.
What it costs
- Adult name change, documents prepared — $400
- Minor name change, documents prepared — $400
- Court filing fee — paid by you to the court
- Newspaper publication, one insertion — paid by you to the paper
- Notarization — $15 first, $7 each additional in Clark County
A bonded Nevada preparer, serving every district court.
Meet Quinnie Do
Quinnie founded TruPoint and leads a small team of document preparers working under the firm’s Nevada Document Preparation Service registration, issued by the Nevada Secretary of State and backed by a bond that protects clients. Name change petitions are prepared at the client’s direction and filed in the district court where the petitioner lives, anywhere in Nevada.
Quinnie is a native English and Vietnamese speaker, an IRS-registered tax return preparer and Certifying Acceptance Agent. A name change is a court matter rather than a recording matter, so the paperwork has to be right the first time — a rejected petition means filing again and paying the court again.
Changing your name in Nevada — what the court actually requires.
To change your name in Nevada you file a verified petition with the clerk of the district court in the district where you live. The petition states your present name, the name you want to use, the reason, whether you have been convicted of a felony, and a statement signed under penalty of perjury that you are not changing your name for a fraudulent purpose. Notice of the petition is then published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county one time. If no written objection is filed within ten days, the court may grant the order. TruPoint prepares the petition, the notice and the proposed order for $400.
The publication point is where most of the information online is out of date. Until 2017 Nevada required the notice to run once a week for three successive weeks. The Legislature changed that, and the statute now requires publication at least one time. The Nevada courts’ own self-help material says the same thing: most adult name changes are published one time. Several well-known Nevada firms and national form sites still tell people three weeks, which inflates the expected publication bill by roughly three times.
Two more points are commonly overstated. Fingerprints are not required of everyone — the statute calls for a complete set of fingerprints only where the applicant has a criminal record. And publication is not always required at all: it is waived where the change is to conform your name to your gender identity, and it can be waived where you show the court that publishing would place your personal safety at risk.
A child’s name change runs under different sections and involves more work. A parent petitions, both parents normally consent, a child aged fourteen or older must consent, and a parent who will not consent has to be served and given the chance to object. TruPoint charges the same $400 for a minor petition as for an adult.
Every reason people change a name, handled the same way.
After a divorce
If the decree did not restore your former name, a petition is how you get it back. Common years later, once the decree is long finalised.
Marriage left you between names
A marriage certificate handles the usual change. When you want something the certificate does not cover, a court order is what agencies will accept.
Changing a child’s name
A parent petitions, both parents normally consent, and a child of fourteen or older consents too. Same $400 as an adult petition.
Gender identity
Where the change conforms your name to your gender identity, Nevada waives the publication requirement entirely. No notice is published.
Safety concerns
If publishing notice would put you at risk, the court can waive publication on satisfactory proof. Worth raising before anything is filed.
The name you have always used
A misspelling carried since birth, an anglicised name, a family name you go by. The court does not require a dramatic reason.
You can file it yourself. Here is where people get stuck.
Nevada does not require an attorney to petition for a name change, and the courts publish self-help forms. What trips people up is that a court clerk cannot tell you whether your paperwork is right, and a rejected petition means filing again and paying the court again.
TruPoint prepares documents at your direction. We are not attorneys, we cannot advise you whether the court will grant your petition, and we do not appear at hearings. If something in a document we prepared is wrong on our end, we correct it at no additional charge.
One fee. Court and newspaper paid direct by you.
Nevada name change, start to signed order.
Intake
Tell us your present name, the name you want, the reason, the county you live in and whether there is a felony conviction. For a child we also need both parents and the child’s age. You get a written disclosure and a contract naming the price before any drafting starts.
Prepare
We draft the verified petition with the sworn statement the court requires, the notice of petition for publication, and the proposed order for the judge to sign. If a publication waiver applies to you, we flag it before you spend anything on a newspaper.
File, publish, and wait the ten days
You file with the district court clerk and pay the filing fee, arrange the single publication, and file the newspaper’s affidavit of publication. If no written objection is filed within ten days, the court may sign the order.
A signed order does not update your records by itself. Social Security, the DMV, your passport, banks and employers each need to be told separately, and most want a certified copy of the order. Ask the clerk for certified copies when you collect it.
What Nevadans actually ask, answered plainly.
TruPoint prepares the petition, the notice of petition and the proposed order for $400, and that is the same price for an adult or a child. On top of our fee you pay the district court’s filing fee directly to the court and the cost of one newspaper publication directly to the newspaper. Neither is marked up. Where publication is waived, that cost disappears entirely.
Once. Nevada law requires the notice of petition to be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the county at least one time, and the Nevada courts say the same. Until 2017 the rule was once a week for three successive weeks, and a number of law firm and form sites still repeat the old rule. If you have been quoted for three weeks of publication, you have been quoted on a rule that no longer applies to adult petitions.
No. Nevada does not require an attorney to file a petition for change of name. TruPoint is a registered and bonded Nevada Document Preparation Service and prepares the documents at your direction for $400. What we cannot do is advise you whether the court will grant your petition or appear at a hearing for you, because that is legal representation.
The same $400 we charge for an adult, with no surcharge even where a non-consenting parent has to be served. A parent petitions on the child’s behalf, both parents normally have to consent, and a child aged fourteen or older must consent as well. Court filing fees and publication are paid by you directly.
Only if you have a criminal record. Nevada requires a complete set of fingerprints to accompany the petition where the applicant has a criminal record. Everyone must disclose whether they have been convicted of a felony, but disclosure and fingerprinting are not the same requirement, and plenty of sites blur the two.
In two situations, yes. Publication is waived where you state that the reason for the change is to conform your name to your gender identity. It can also be waived where you satisfy the court that publishing the notice would place your personal safety at risk. Raise it with us at intake, before you spend anything on a newspaper.
Most documents are drafted within one business day of receiving your facts. After that the timing belongs to the court and the newspaper: you file, publish once, then wait the statutory ten days from publication for any written objection before the court can act. Court scheduling varies by county, so the total is usually a matter of weeks rather than days.
The district court for the district where you live, not where you were born or married. TruPoint prepares petitions for every Nevada district court, so it makes no difference to your price whether you are in Las Vegas, Reno, Elko or Goldfield.
The petition has to state a reason, but it does not have to be dramatic. Returning to a former name after a divorce, using the name you have always been known by, correcting a spelling carried since birth and conforming your name to your gender identity are all ordinary reasons. What the petition must also say, under penalty of perjury, is that you are not changing your name for a fraudulent purpose.
Yes. If your divorce decree restored your former name you generally do not need a separate petition, and the decree itself is your proof. If it did not, or if the divorce was finalised years ago, a petition for change of name is the route. We prepare it for $400.
Anyone may file a written objection with the clerk within ten days of publication. If one is filed, the court sets a day to hear the petitioner and the objector on reasonable notice, rather than granting the order on the papers. Objections are uncommon in ordinary adult petitions, and they are more likely where a parent has not consented to a child’s name change.
No. The signed order changes your legal name, but every agency has to be told separately — Social Security, the DMV, your passport, banks, your employer and your insurers. Most of them want to see a certified copy, so ask the clerk for several certified copies when you collect the order.
A felony conviction does not bar a petition, but it has to be disclosed in the petition and a complete set of fingerprints has to accompany it. Concealing a conviction is a far bigger problem than having one, because the petition is sworn under penalty of perjury.
We prepare the documents and explain exactly what to file and where. You file with the district court clerk and pay the filing fee, because that step and the court appearance belong to you as the petitioner. We are not attorneys and do not represent clients in court.
Our part is $400 for the prepared documents, whether the petition is for you or your child. Beyond that you pay the filing fee set by your own district court and the cost of one newspaper insertion, both directly and both unmarked up. Because filing fees and newspaper rates differ across Nevada, we confirm the real numbers for your county before you commit to anything.
Yes. Quinnie is a native English and Vietnamese speaker and handles the entire matter in either language.
Documents we prepare, across Nevada.
Living Trust
From $695, with the funding deed that actually puts your property inside the trust.
Nevada Deeds
Grant, bargain and sale, quitclaim, deed upon death and entity deeds, $250 with the Declaration of Value included.
Deed Upon Death
Name who inherits your property while keeping full control, and keep it out of probate.
Where we work
All 17 Nevada jurisdictions, with intake, notarization and recording handled remotely.
Ten minutes of your facts. We do the rest.
A registered Nevada document preparer drafts your petition, notice and proposed order, and tells you which court to file in and whether a publication waiver applies to you. $400 for an adult or a child, court and newspaper paid direct by you, English or Vietnamese.