What is my wife's "legal name"?

My wife wants to apply for the new Real ID version of the California driver license when her current license expires.

Looking at her birth certificate, you would say that she has a first name ("Mary") and a middle name ("Anne"). She was born at a time when Mary was a very common first name; once in school she was addressed, at least verbally, as Maryanne, to be distinguished from the other girls named Mary in her school. Soon she began to write her name that way, and as far as she is concerned Maryanne is her "first name" (and she has no middle name). She has always used Maryanne for work documents, Social Security, driver license, and passport.

I know it's hard to predict what will happen when she goes to DMV for the Real ID, but my question is this:
What is her "legal name"? Is she likely to ever be tripped up because the way her name is written on her birth certificate differs from the way it has been written on documents since? For that matter, is there such a thing as a "legal name"?

This all started when a friend Elizabeth, who has gone (inconsistently) by Bette since childhood, was told at DMV that she would need to legally change her name to Bette before she could get a Real ID driver license.

STEVEN F2018-09-17T02:08:22Z

Anyone's legal name is what is one their BIRTH CERTIFICATE until it is legally changed. It is COMMON, but not required for a bride to legally change their last name at the time they marry.

Note: The claim she was issued a Social Security number, Driver's license OR Passport with a name different from what is on her birth certificate without DOCUMENTING a legal name change is a FLAT OUT LIE.

Nekkid Truth!2018-09-17T00:00:27Z

Her legal name is whatever is written on her social security card.
Whats on the birth certificate is the name her parents gave her at birth. The ONLY time information gets changed on a birth certificate is if there was an error that needs corrected.
A birth certificate does NOT get changed if you make a legal name change. Your social security card would reflect that change.

If she filled out "MaryAnne" as her first name when she filed for her name change when she got married, then that was a legal name change.

Yeti2018-09-16T23:59:48Z

Her legal name is what's on her birth certificate, followed by any legal changes from it, such as can occur during marriage.

Though some things like Social Security could have gotten off historically, the passport should match her birth certificate. The State Department historically usually caught that, even if other places just used whatever people wrote down.

If your wife started using a name different from her birth certificate, she is going to have a mess to clean up, and it may be easiest to now do a legal name change to what she's been using.

Nosehair2018-09-16T23:41:40Z

Assuming that she did not do a legal name change and her first name is "Mary" on her birth certificate, I absolutely do not believe that the first name "Maryanne" is on her Social Security, driver license, and passport.

Anonymous2018-09-16T23:21:13Z

Weird question.

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