Bill Text: NJ S679 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Revises State marriage license application form to permit certain changes in middle name and surname.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2023-03-06 - Reported from Senate Committee with Amendments, 2nd Reading [S679 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2022-S679-Amended.html

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[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 679

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

220th LEGISLATURE

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2022 SESSION

 

 

Sponsored by:

Senator  ANTHONY M. BUCCO

District 25 (Morris and Somerset)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Revises State marriage license application form to permit certain changes in middle name and surname.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As reported by the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee on March 6, 2023, with amendments.

  

An Act concerning the State marriage license application form and supplementing Title 37 of the Revised Statutes.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

      1.   a.  The Commissioner of Health shall require that the State marriage license application form enable each of the applicants to enter changes in middle name and surname resulting from the marriage.  The application form shall include two parallel sections permitting each of the applicants to enter one of the following options as ¹[their] the applicant's¹ surname:

      (1)  the surname of the other spouse;

      (2)  any former surname of either spouse;

      (3)  a name combining all or a segment of the premarriage surname or any former surname of ¹[each spouse] one or both spouses¹ into a single surname;

      (4)  a combination name separated by a hyphen, provided that each part of such combination surname is the premarriage surname, or any former surname, of ¹[each] one or both¹ of the spouses; or

      (5)  the premarriage surname of a spouse as ¹[the] that¹ spouse's middle name, followed by the surname of the other spouse as the new surname.

      b.   The application form shall include language instructing the applicants that neither party to the marriage is required to change his or her surname, and that ¹[applicants who do change their] an applicant who changes the applicant's¹ middle name or surname should contact ¹[their] the applicant's¹ local Social Security Administration ¹Office¹ , so that its records and the applicant's Social Security identification card can be updated to reflect the name change.  ¹The application form shall advise the applicant as to what additional steps may be needed on the part of the applicant to effectuate a name change with State or local departments, divisions, offices, and agencies.

     c.     The commissioner shall coordinate with other State departments, divisions, offices, and agencies as shall be necessary to establish processes under which an application completed pursuant to this section may be used to effectuate a name change as expeditiously as possible without the need for further action on the part of the applicant, including, but not limited to, updating records maintained by those departments, divisions, offices, and agencies, and issuing to the applicant a new State driver's license, non-driver identification card, or other government-issued identification card that reflects the name change.¹

 

     2.    This act shall take effect on the first day of the seventh month next following enactment, except that the Commissioner of Health may take any anticipatory administrative action in advance as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.