A coworker of mine recently changed his name (he and his brother both changed their last names from Schnitzius to Stone). It was a matter of simplification, and I think they took their papers to a judge and had them signed. I don't know how much it cost. For a few years I hyphenated my husband's (now ex) name onto mine, but it was an exercise in frustration when southerners saw the hyphen. They dropped my last name, turning it into a middle initial, and used his and tacked on a Mrs. This Ms had to revert back to her own name. Since it was always my name, I just reclaimed it. Took my birth certificate to the Social Security office, and once the new card was in hand (very easy and quick) I proceeded to the driver's licence office. With those two cards the rest was easy.

At the divorce was another opportunity, and I nearly accidentally dropped my middle name, which I don't use because I'm not particularly fond of it. If I had signed the papers without it that would have been my legal name sans the middle name. I heard my mother's voice saying to "keep the name," so I signed it on those papers. And the attorney and the judge each took a handful of pages and we scribbled it in on all of the occasions where it needed to appear.

SRS