Name change generally refers to a legal act allowing a person to adopt a name different from their name at birth, marriage, or adoption. The procedures and ease of a name change depend on the jurisdiction. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose limitations on name changes while civil law jurisdictions are restrictive.
A pseudonym can be regarded as a name adopted to conceal a person's identity, and does not always require legal sanction. Additionally, there are other reasons for informal changes of name that are not done for reasons of concealment, but for personal, social or ideological reasons.
Read more about Name Change: United States, United Kingdom, Civil Law, South Africa, Name Change On Religious Conversion
Famous quotes containing the word change:
“The appeal of the New Right is simply that it seems to promise that nothing will change in the domestic realm. People are terrified of change there, because its the last humanizing force left in society, and they think, correctly, that it must be retained.”
—Gerda Lerner (b. 1920)