Legal name is often the name which an individual is called at birth or which appears on their birth certificate (see birth name) or marriage certificate (in places that have a statute allowing a name change to be recorded at marriage).

A person's legal name typically comprises their given name and a family name. The order varies according to culture and country. There are also country-by-country differences on changes of legal names by marriage, see married name.

United States

Most states still allow the common law of changing one's name through non-fraudulent use and this is actually the most common method since most women who marry do not petition a court under the statutorily prescribed method, but simply use a new name (typically the husband's, a custom which started under the theory of coverture where a woman lost her identity and most rights when she married). Most state courts have held that a legally assumed name (i.e., for a non-fraudulent purpose) is a legal name and usable as their true name, though assumed names are often not considered the person's technically true name.

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