Thinking about changing your name? Many Physicians inquire about the obstacles encountered when considering a legal name change at any point in their career. Whether you’re a medical doctor getting married, divorced, transitioning, or have any other reason for changing your name, it is important to understand all of the entities you’ll need to inform of your name change. Depending on where you are in your medical career, you may have more places to contact if you’re a practicing physician than if you haven’t yet graduated from medical school. Once your name change is approved, you’ll need to update or inform the following:

Basic Physician Name Change Items:

• Social Security Card
• Driver’s license
• Passport
• Bank/credit card accounts
• Insurance
• Bills/other accounts
• Online Social Accounts
• Many of these can be covered through sites like NameChange.org or HitchSwitch

Physician Name Change Tasks Related to Your Medical Career:

• Residency/Fellowship Program
• ACGME
• ECFMG (if you are an international graduate)
• Medial License/NPI Number
• DEA registration
• Hospital Privileges/EMR systems/Call Sheets/Schedules
• Malpractice Insurance
• Medical Billing/Coding Information
• Professional Credentials
• Professional Organizations
• Patient Records
• Medical Boards
• Publications (include an asterisk explaining that paper’s name discrepancy)
• CV
• Inform Colleagues
• Inform Patients
• Inform Your References
• Email Address / Email Signature
• Professional Online Accounts including workplace web pages and profiles

If you’re a physician set on changing your name, the matter of timing may also be relevant. Are you in the middle of job interviews or traveling? You might want to hold off until you have settled on a medical practice, informing your future employer to anticipate your upcoming name change.

Another important thing to note is that many of these tasks will vary depending on the state where you decide to practice. In some states, you can legally change your name but maintain your original surname for practice and any career-related information. In other states, that level of flexibility is not legally possible.

Whatever your unique case, our team is ready to support you as you work to find your perfect physician job.