Florida Name Change Laws
To obtain a legal name change in Florida, an applicant must submit a petition to the court. No publication is required. The applicant must be fingerprinted. No name change will be issued if the applicant's civil rights have been suspended. (Fla. Stat. Ann. § 68.07). Name change instructions and forms can be found on the Florida courts website.
For comprehensive instructions on the process of updating IDs in Florida, NCTE helped create a Florida Name and Gender Change Guide inEnglishand Spanish!This guide was created for the Florida Chapter of the TransLatina Coalition andArianna's Center, written and designed by Cooley LLP as a project of the National Center for Transgender Equality,andwascreated in partnership with Equality Florida and the National Center forLesbian Rights.
For an online guide to the name and gender change process, see Florida Name Change Website.
For instructions on legal name changes for minors under 18 in Florida, see NCTE's Name Changes for Minors in Florida resource.
Florida Drivers License Policy & Procedures
In order to update name and/or gender on a Florida ID, the applicant must submit (1) the court order for a name change and/or (2) a signed original statement on office letterhead from the attending physician stating that the applicant is undergoing appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition. The Florida Department of Highway Services and Motor Vehicles addresses name changes here, and their memo on gender marker change policy can be found here.
Florida Birth Certificate Laws
Last updated November 2023
Florida Administrative Code allows for amendments to the sex on a birth certificate with "original, certified, or notarized supporting documentary evidence." The Bureau of Vital Statisticswill accept a standard passport gender change letter as evidence of gender change.
Detailed instructions are available here. To apply for an amended birth certificate, the applicant,parent, or legal guardianmust submit:
- DH429 Application to Amend a Florida Birth Record(also available in Spanish here);
- DH430 Affidavit of Amendment of Certificate of Live Birth, signed in front of a notary;
- Letter from a physician confirming appropriate clinical treatment for gender transition (use the exact language of this model letter); and
- Payment of the $20 amendment fee.
Submit the application documents by mail to:
Department of Health
Office of Vital Statistics
ATTN: Amendment Section
P.O. Box 210
Jacksonville, FL 32231-0042
