About Changing Your Name on Your South Dakota Registration

Vehicle owners must change their car registration in South Dakota whenever they experience a legal name change. While marriage and divorce are the most common reasons for requesting a DMV name change, other significant life events can also result in needing to update your name information.

Drivers are required to change the name on their car registration in person at their local county treasurer’s office. Before changing your name on registration and title documents, you must update your driver’s license and your records with the Social Security Administration (SSA). Read on to learn more about how to update your SD registration with your new name.

When is a South Dakota DMV name change required?

Although South Dakota does not mandate a certain time frame for changing your name on your car registration, it is recommended that you do so as soon as possible following a marriage, divorce or other court-ordered name change.

This can help avoid confusion later on from not having the same name on all vehicle-related documentation. Noticing a printed error on your current registration documents is another reason to request a name change on car registration, titles and other DMV records.

Changing Name on Car Registration in South Dakota

Changing your name on your car registration in SD is one of the last steps in updating your vehicle records following a significant life event. As mentioned above, you must first update your records with the SSA and then change your name on your SD driver’s license. After completing those steps, you will be ready to visit your county treasurer’s office to update your registration and title documents.

Be sure to bring a form of fee payment and proof of your legal name change using a document from the name change checklist in the section below. If you own more than one vehicle, be sure to update each title and registration.

South Dakota Name Change Checklist of Acceptable Documents

An SD DOR name change cannot be completed unless you present the proper paperwork. Name change documents must be issued by a government agency and include an official signature and seal. You cannot submit digital or photocopied documents. The most commonly used name change documents include:

• Certified marriage certificates
• Certified divorce records
• Court orders of adoption or other legal name changes

However, you may need other documents depending on your situation.