Name Changes
People change names for various reasons, but within the LGBTQIA community, most commonly name changes are made to have a name align with their gender identity. In this page we'll cover how to change your name and gender in various UC Davis systems.
We currently do not have a guide for legal name changes, although we'll occasionally host workshops with the Gender Health Center for this purpose and we do have copies of a guide from the Gender Health Center in our center on how to most easily do name and gender marker changes. Come by the front desk to get one of these guides!
Preferred Name Change
This is the name change process for if you have a preferred or lived name that is different from your legal name, but you have not made this name change in legal forms such as on a passport, driver’s license, birth certificate, social security card, etc. This process only allows you to edit your first name.
UCD allows name changes to the first name of a student within the university’s information systems with a preferred name in addition to their legal name. It is further understood that the student's preferred name should be used in university communications and reporting, except where the use of the legal name is necessitated by university business or legal requirement.
This name will appear instead of legal name in the UC Davis Campus Directory and in other university records and documents. Some records, such as paychecks or financial aid, that require the use of a legal name, will not change to preferred name. However, whenever possible, preferred name will be used.
The university allows you to specify a preferred name by editing the UC Davis Campus Directory. By updating your display first name in the directory, this will serve as your preferred name, and it will appear in your directory profile and other records.
Link for directory edit: https://org.ucdavis.edu/odr/
For more information about preferred name changes: https://registrar.ucdavis.edu/records/preferred-name
Complete Name Changes
To change your name on all of your university academic records after a legal name change (your student ID number will remain the same), you can complete the online Petition for Name Change on University Record webform and upload your supporting legal documentation. You may also use this form for name corrections.
Link for Petition for Name Change on University Record webform: https://registrar-apps.ucdavis.edu/forms/secure/Form.cfm?Form=NC
If you don't have an active UC Davis computing services account, you may submit the paper form with your supporting legal documentation to the Office of the University Registrar.
Paper form: https://local-resources.ucdavis.edu/local_resources/forms/D023-name-change.pdf
For more information on complete name changes: https://registrar.ucdavis.edu/records/changes-personal-information
Student Health and Wellness Center Name Change
To change your name for SHIP you update your profile on Health-e-Messaging or by notifying SHWC staff. These can be changed at any time, and will only affect your medical records at SHCS.
Gender Marker Change
UCD has a system for changing gender from male to female and male to female, however a non-binary option is not available currently but the LGBTQIA RC and other organizations on campus are working on changing all UCD systems to include non-binary options where gender information is required. We aim to complete this work as soon as we can.
To update your Gender on your UC Davis record, submit the Gender Change form through OASIS. If you no longer have access to OASIS, use the Gender Change form, which should be submitted to the Office of the University Registrar. These changes do no require any supporting documentation, so no legal gender marker changes need to be made for a gender marker change to be made for your UCD records.
OASIS link: https://oasis.ucdavis.edu/
Paper form link: http://local-resources.ucdavis.edu/local_resources/forms/D062-gender-change.pdf