Your Estate Attorney Needs ALL Your Names

Name Consistency Prevents Headaches!

What is in a name?

If you are a beneficiary or a creditor of an estate, or if you are setting up an estate plan, your name means a great deal. Your estate attorney needs ALL your names.

It is not unusual for a person to go by different names, such as the name we are given at birth and the names we choose for ourselves. S

ome of us use nicknames; others use our middle name or initials as our primary name. We may also legally change our name due to marriage, divorce, gender identity, or personal preference. Some people even use different names within specific communities and groups.

However you choose to identify yourself and whether you have changed your name formally or informally—in the eyes of the court or just among friends and family—you need to ensure that any different names, and variations thereof, are reconciled across legal documents, including your estate plan, to avoid confusion and unintended outcomes.

Same Person, Different Name: Name Variations Are Common

Your name is a seemingly simple detail that may not receive much attention in your daily life, but it can have major ramifications for your estate plan and what happens after you pass.

Think for a moment about how you present yourself on paper and in person. The following are some examples of common name variations:

●        Full legal name (first, middle, last). Some people consistently use their full legal name (e.g., Katherine Elizabeth Johnson).

●        Middle initial (first, middle initial, last). Others prefer a more concise version (e.g., Katherine E. Johnson).

●        Middle name instead of first (middle, last). In some cases, someone may go by their middle name (e.g., Elizabeth Johnson) instead of their legal first name (Katherine).

●        Nickname. Nicknames can differ significantly from legal names (e.g., Kate for Katherine, Jack for John, or Peg for Margaret).

The names you use, like the clothes you wear, may have changed over the years to reflect how you have changed. Most adults likely have at least one alternate name (particularly women, due to marriage), but nongiven names can also appear in other contexts.

●        Maiden names. According to Pew Research, nearly 80 percent of US women and 5 percent of US men in opposite-sex marriages take their spouse’s surname after marriage,[1] while around 14 percent of women in opposite-sex marriages retain their maiden name.[2] 

●        Hyphenated last names. An estimated 20 percent of married couples in North America use hyphenated last names.[3] However, if parents pass their hyphenated last name to their children, the children may later drop the hyphen. As NPR notes, merging hyphenated names can become a “bureaucratic nightmare,” causing confusion at schools, at doctors’ offices, and in other settings.[4] 

●        Online aliases and pseudonyms. A study from blog comment hosting service Disqus found that 70 percent of people who use nicknames or aliases online do so for privacy.[5] 

●        Professional names. Authors and entertainers often use pseudonyms, such as J.K. Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith, Robert Zimmerman performing as Bob Dylan, or Prince using a symbol instead of a name. People may also use an alias to separate their personal and professional identities.

●        Cultural practices. Immigrants may Americanize their names as part of the assimilation process and for economic benefits, especially if their legal name is difficult to spell or pronounce. Around one-third of immigrants to the United States changed their names within 10 years of their arrival.[6] Mexican nationals often use their maiden names along with their husband’s surname (i.e., Gloria Chavez De Miller) It can be confusing to line up all the different names used in the past. Be careful to let your attorney know all the names you use. Your attorney can mention each of them with an “AKA” (i.e., Also Known As) designation.

●        Adoption. For people who are adopted, both their first and last names can be changed once the process is complete.

●        Personal choice. Many celebrities, including Angelina Jolie, Cher, and Elton John, have legally changed their names.

Why Name Nuances Matter in Your Estate Plan

Variations in how you identify yourself might seem trivial in everyday contexts and conversations, but they can create issues in your estate plan. Informing your attorney about every name you have used can prevent headaches and potential complications. Here is how:

●        Identifying what you own. Estate planning begins with cataloging assets (e.g., bank accounts, real estate, investments, and digital assets). Tracking and inventorying these assets can be challenging if you have used different names. For example, a bank account under the name Katherine E. Johnson and a home under Elizabeth Johnson might be missed if only one name is listed. The deed to your house, brokerage accounts, and vehicle titles should also be checked for name variances. Without knowing all the nuances of your name, your attorney might inadvertently overlook assets when creating your estate plan, leading to certain assets not being included in your plan and delays and legal hurdles for your beneficiaries, who may need to provide legal documentation of your name change.

●        Putting creditors on notice. The person you choose to wind down your affairs after your death (personal representative, executor, or successor trustee) must settle debts before distributing assets to your loved ones. The process of settling debts often requires creditor notification. Depending on state law, creditors have limited time to file claims against a deceased debtor’s estate. Publishing notice of the debtor’s death may shorten the amount of time that a creditor has to file their claim. However, name mismatches can alter this timeline. If debts are under a different name, creditors may not be properly notified, leading to disputed debts that extend probate and increase legal costs.

●        Searching for unclaimed property. States hold billions of dollars in unclaimed assets, such as bank accounts, uncashed checks, utility payment refunds, and insurance payouts. About one in seven people have unclaimed property held by their state’s treasuries, collectively amounting to billions of dollars in unclaimed property in the US.[7] When you pass away, your estate may need to search for unclaimed property to ensure that all your assets are accounted for. If your attorney does not know that you once went by the name Katherine E. Johnson or a nickname such as Kate Johnson, they might miss unclaimed property tied to those names, and your loved ones could lose out on assets that rightfully belong to them.

In addition to assets, creditors, and unaccounted-for and unclaimed property, name variations can disrupt the following:

●        Digital assets. Digital assets such as cryptocurrency wallets can be difficult for executors to access if they are not clearly documented or linked to your legal identity. Noncustodial wallets, in particular, may be unrecoverable without the seed phrase or private key, even if the executor knows they exist.

●        International assets. Assets abroad may use names adapted to local legal, linguistic, or cultural conventions. For instance, a property in Spain titled under the name Catalina Johnson might not match a US will’s reference to the same person, Katherine Johnson. Also, names may appear with spelling variations; in a different script (e.g., Cyrillic or Arabic); or reordered (i.e., last name appearing first).

●        Blended families. In blended families, name changes resulting from remarriage or adoption might confuse inheritance rights.

●        Taxes. Inconsistencies in names across financial accounts and tax documentation could potentially raise red flags with tax authorities during the estate administration process.

●        Beneficiary designations. Failure to update beneficiary designations on life insurance policies, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death or transfer-on-death accounts after a legal name change can lead to complications for your beneficiaries when they try to claim the benefits. Financial institutions could delay or deny payouts, and your loved one may need to provide proof of the name change to establish their identity.

●        Powers of attorney and healthcare directives. If your or your appointed agent’s name is legally changed after these documents are created, updating them is necessary to ensure that your agent’s authority is clearly recognized under their current legal name and that the documents are unequivocally tied to your current legal identity.

The last two examples show the importance of regularly reviewing estate planning documents to ensure that they reflect any name variations and new legal names for you, your estate plan’s beneficiaries, and your trusted decision-makers.

Make Name Changes a Part of Your Regular Estate Plan Updates

William Shakespeare famously wrote “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” to mean that things are what they are, no matter what name we give them.

A name does not necessarily define who you are. However, name changes and variations can leave a sour taste in the mouths of beneficiaries, creditors, trustees, and executors when the time comes to settle your estate.

Many estate plans have not been touched since they were first created years ago and are woefully outdated. As part of the review process, you and your attorney should take the time to discuss any informal variations and formal legal changes to your name—and the names of your beneficiaries and decision-makers—to ensure a more accurate and effective estate plan. If you are just starting your plan, be sure to tell your attorney all your names. Call us to schedule an appointment to create or review your estate plan.

[1] Luona Lin, About 8 in 10 women in opposite-sex marriages say they took their husband’s last name, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Sept. 7, 2023), https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/07/about-eight-in-ten-women-in-opposite-sex-marriages-say-they-took-their-husbands-last-name.

[2] Id.

[3] Ethan Grant, The Rise of Hyphenated Last Names: Embracing Equality and Heritage in Modern Families, Bluenotary (Jan. 5, 2025), https://bluenotary.us/hyphenated-last-name.

[4] Tovia Smith, When Hyphen Boy Meets Hyphen Girl, Names Pile Up, NPR (Jul. 19, 2012), https://www.npr.org/2012/07/19/156923573/when-hyphen-boy-meets-hyphen-girl-names-pile-up.

[5] Steve Roy, What’s In A Name? Understanding Pseudonyms, Disqus (Dec. 15, 2014), https://blog.disqus.com/whats-in-a-name-understanding-pseudonyms.

[6] Steinar Brandslet, Name change in the United States brought economic payoff, Norwegian SciTech News (Jun. 26, 2018), https://norwegianscitechnews.com/2018/06/name-change-united-states-economic-payoff.

[7] What is unclaimed property? Nat’l Ass’n of Unclaimed Prop. Admins., https://unclaimed.org/what-is-unclaimed-property.