QUAERITUR: Legal name changes and baptism certificates

From a reader:

When you get married in the Catholic church, you are required to obtain a baptismal certificate. If you have your name legally changed such that it no longer matches the name on the baptismal certificate, where do you stand. Is there a way to update the baptismal certificate?

Take the civil certificate proving the name change to the church where you were baptized (or the parish, in the case of mergers).  Call the diocese if you are not sure where.  At the parish, they can make a notation in the baptismal record.  They don’t change the record, but the note the fact of a name change.  They can then reiussue a certificate reflecting the change.

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