How to change your name in Spain

After marriage

Marriage does nothing to your name. Article 109 of the Código Civil says filiation determines the apellidos: the first surname of each parent, in the order the parents chose before the birth was registered (article 49 of the Ley 20/2011). No article of either law lets a husband or wife take the other's surname, add it, or hyphenate it, and the Registro Civil will not write one in. A married woman styled 'de' her husband's surname on an envelope is using a social form that has no legal effect and appears on no document. Your DNI, your passport and your Seguridad Social record carry the same two apellidos before and after the wedding.

What you can change, and where. The Ley 20/2011 puts every change in the hands of the Encargado del Registro Civil, by a procedimiento registral, and it is free. Article 52 lets the Encargado authorise a change of your nombre propio on your declaration, if you prove the habitual use of the new name and the other conditions of the registry legislation are met. Article 53 lets the Encargado authorise, on a simple declaration of your will, the changes it lists: the inversión of the order of your apellidos, the preposition 'de' before a first surname that is or begins like a first name and 'y' or 'i' between the two, the spelling of your surnames regularised to an official language of your origin or home, an adult child following a parent's change, and the keeping of surnames used before a later rectification of filiation. Article 54 covers any other change of apellidos, through an expediente: the surname as proposed must be a situación de hecho you habitually use, must belong to you legitimately, and the two surnames that result must not come from the same line; a surname contrary to dignity or causing serious inconvenience can be changed without habitual use, and a victim of gender violence can change surnames, or their whole identity, without the article 54.2 requirements. Article 57 makes the inscription constitutive: the change takes effect when it is entered in your registro individual, and anyone aged sixteen or over applies alone.

One rule reaches across the border. Article 56 recognises a voluntary change of apellidos made under the rules of another EU member state by a Spaniard who also holds that nationality. A name changed by a court outside the European Union — a United States court order, for instance — is a different matter: it is inscribed only if it is recognised under article 96, and Spanish law governs a Spaniard's name, so the safe route for a Spaniard is the Spanish one above. Until the Encargado inscribes a change, your legal name in Spain is the one on your birth entry.

After divorce

A divorce changes nothing about your name in Spain, because the marriage changed nothing. There is no name to give back and no declaration to sign: the apellidos on your DNI and passport are the ones you were born with, and they stay. If you took a married name on records in another country, that name was never a Spanish one, and Spain will not have to be told it is gone.

What Spain does need is the divorce itself. If a Spanish court granted it, the letrado de la Administración de Justicia sends the judgment to the Registro Civil the same day (article 61 of the Ley 20/2011) and the entry is made without your help. If a court outside Spain granted it, article 96 says only a final judgment can be inscribed, and gives two routes: exequátur before a Spanish court under the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil, or an application to the Encargado del Registro Civil, who inscribes it after checking the formal regularity and authenticity of the papers, that the foreign court based its jurisdiction on criteria equivalent to Spain's, that every party was properly served with time to prepare, and that the inscription is not manifestly incompatible with Spanish public order. The Encargado notifies everyone affected, and either of you can still ask for exequátur or appeal to the Dirección General. The consulate in Miami puts the consequence plainly: a foreign divorce produces full civil effects in Spain only once it is inscribed in the Spanish Registro Civil, and a consular officer cannot authorise a divorce deed. For the exequátur route it takes a power of attorney for a lawyer in Spain, with the judgment apostilled.

If you want a different name after the divorce anyway — your first name in the form you have always used, or your apellidos in the other order — that is the ordinary Registro Civil route below, and it has nothing to do with the decree.

For any other reason

Every change goes through the Registro Civil, and the Encargado decides. There is no court and no fee.

A first name (nombre propio): article 52 of the Ley 20/2011. You declare the change and prove that you already use the new name habitually; the Encargado authorises it in a procedimiento registral. Article 51 sets the limits on the name itself: no more than two simple names or one compound one, nothing contrary to dignity, nothing that makes identification confusing. A person rectifying the sex on their birth entry under Ley 4/2023 chooses the new nombre propio in the same appearance before the Encargado (article 44), at any Oficina del Registro Civil, from sixteen alone.

The order of your surnames: article 53.1.º. Inverting the two apellidos is a declaration of will, not an expediente, and article 109 of the Código Civil gives you the right to ask for it on reaching majority. The same article 53 covers the 'de' before a first surname that reads like a first name, the 'y' or 'i' between the two, a spelling regularised to an official language of your origin or home, and an adult child following a parent's change.

Any other surname: article 54, through an expediente. Three things have to be shown: the surname as you propose it is already a situación de hecho you use habitually; the surname or surnames you want to join or modify belong to you legitimately; and the two that result do not come from the same line. Habitual use alone is enough where the surnames are those of a person who took you in and they, or their heirs, consent; no habitual use is needed to change a surname contrary to dignity or one that causes serious inconvenience, so long as the other two conditions hold. A victim of gender violence, or a descendant who lived in the household, can change apellidos without any of those requirements, and for urgency or safety can change their whole identity.

What the registry cannot grant, the Ministry can, by Orden, in the exceptional circumstances of article 55. And under article 57 a change of apellidos reaches every child under your patria potestad and any adult descendant who consents; the inscription in your registro individual is what makes it real.

Where: the Oficina del Registro Civil for where you live, or, if you live abroad, the consulate for your district acting as Registro Civil Consular, which requires you to be registered as a resident in its Registro de Matrícula Consular. The Miami consulate processes a change of nombre through its own office, sends a change of apellidos to the Encargado, and states that both procedures are free. Ask the office by email which papers it wants before you go: the list differs between offices, and the consulate says so.

If you married outside Spain

A marriage celebrated before a foreign authority reaches the Spanish Registro Civil by inscription of the foreign certificate, so long as the marriage is effective under Spanish law (article 59.2 of the Ley 20/2011). Once inscribed, the entry proves the marriage, its date and place, and gives it full civil effect against third parties (article 59.5). Under article 10.1 an event that happened abroad is registered at the Oficina Consular for that district, and may also be requested and made at any Oficina General del Registro Civil in Spain; the Oficina Central keeps the foreign documents nobody else is competent for (article 21). Either spouse may apply, whatever their nationality.

The consulate in Miami, which covers Florida, publishes the list: the original marriage certificate from the local US registry; a certificación literal of the Spanish spouse's birth issued within the last six months, or proof the birth is entered at that consulate; the non-Spanish spouse's birth certificate, apostilled or legalised; where either of you was divorced before, the decree with its marginal note in the Spanish register; DNI or passport for both of you, with copies; proof of your current address; the hoja declaratoria de datos for a marriage, signed by the declarant; and a declaración jurada from each spouse of their civil status on the day of the wedding. Foreign documents are legalised or apostilled and officially translated into Spanish; that consulate says a certificate issued in the United States needs neither an apostille nor a translation for it, and other offices ask for both, so check with yours before you order anything. You email the scanned hoja declaratoria first, the consulate books you an appointment, and you appear in person. The inscription is free, and you leave with a certificación literal of the marriage entry.

A couple who both live in Spain register a marriage from abroad at their own Oficina General instead. Whichever office you use, the entry changes no name: your apellidos after the inscription are exactly what they were before it.

Online and video ceremonies are a question the Spanish law does not answer in terms. Article 59.2 asks whether the marriage is effective under Spanish law, and the Encargado decides that on the papers; no published decision settles the point for a marriage declared by video to an authority abroad while a spouse was in Spain. Ask the office before you rely on such a certificate for anything that matters.

If you live in the United States

If you are a Spanish citizen living in the United States, your US records change with the US checklist: Social Security, your state driver licence, the IRS and the rest follow the US marriage certificate, the divorce decree or the court order. Your Spanish name does not move with them. Spain applies Spanish law to a Spaniard's name, and that law changes no name on marriage or divorce, so a married name you carry on US records is not a Spanish name and Spain does not need to be told about it.

What Spain does want is the marriage itself. Register it at the Consulado General for the district where you married: email the scanned hoja declaratoria de datos to its civil-registry address, wait for the appointment, and appear with the certificate, your certificación literal de nacimiento issued within the last six months, both identity documents, proof of address and a declaración jurada of each spouse's civil status on the wedding day. The consulate in Miami says a certificate issued in the United States needs no apostille and no translation for that; other consulates ask for both. The inscription is free and you leave with a certificación literal of the marriage entry.

If you want a different Spanish name, the consulate is your Registro Civil, provided you are registered as a resident in its Registro de Matrícula Consular. It processes a change of nombre propio itself, sends a change of apellidos to the Encargado, and states that both are free; email it first for the list of papers, then appear in person with your DNI or passport. Once the change is inscribed, order a new certificación literal and renew your passport at the consulate: USD 35 in Miami from 1 July 2025, about three weeks, appointment required. The DNI is the one thing the consulate cannot issue; it gives you the birth certificate the Comisaría in Spain will want, and you renew the card on a visit, free if the card is still valid and the only change is your datos de filiación.

After a divorce nothing happens to your name, but the divorce has to be inscribed before Spain treats you as unmarried: either the Encargado's recognition under article 96 on a final, apostilled and translated judgment, or exequátur through a lawyer in Spain under a power of attorney the consulate can notarise. A name change ordered by a US court is not inscribed on its own; use the Spanish route above.

Your US records, from Social Security to your state license and the everyday accounts, change with the US checklist; it prepares each form and letter in the order the agencies check them.

Change Your Name is a self-help form-preparation service, not a law firm; this page is general information about Spain, not legal advice.