Introduction

To change your name and gender in California, you need to ask a court to order the change. You won't need to appear at a hearing unless there's a problem. The court will automatically approve your name and gender change after a 6-week waiting period.

Forms

You can fill out your forms by hand with blue or black ink, or using a computer with a black font.

Forms can be filled out on your computer using your web browser (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Edge), a PDF reader (e.g. Okular, Acrobat), or other software that can edit PDFs (e.g. LibreOffice Draw, Xournal++). I used LibreOffice Draw for my forms.

Cost

Ignoring incidental and variable costs such as parking at government facilities, the cost of my name change came out to $789.84. Here's the breakdown of all the costs:

Item Cost Court Filing Fee in Los Angeles $435.00 Certified Court Copies $121.50 VS-20 Form Notarization $15.00 Postage Stamp for Amendment Request $0.73 Birth Record Amendment $26.00 DMV Driver’s License Update $36.76 Passport Photos $15.00 Priority Mail for Passport Application $9.85 Passport Renewal $130.00 Total $789.84

Other resources

California's self-help guide. The Transgender Law Center's ID Please Guide The National Center for Transgender Equality's ID Documents Center