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Legal name
Legal name is often the name which an individual is called at birth or which appears on their birth certificate (see birth name) or marriage certificate (in those States which have a statute allowing a name change to be recorded at marriage). Most States still allow the common law of changing one's name through non-fraudulent use and this is actually the most common method since most women who marry do not petition a court under the statutorily prescribed method, but simply use a new name (typically the husband's, a custom which started under the theory of coverture where a woman lost her identity and most rights when she married).
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