A viral TikTok skit by content creator Baet has the whole country talking about an orange that wants to be called “Sharmaine,” complete with a running joke about getting the new name “notarized.” It is good fun, but it has also surfaced a genuinely common question among Filipinos: if you actually wanted to change your first name, how would you do it, and would notarization alone be enough?
The short answer is that notarization is only one small step. Changing a first name on your civil registry record is a formal process governed by law, and for most cases it no longer requires going to court. Here is how it works.
The law behind it
The legal basis is Republic Act No. 9048, enacted in 2001. The law authorizes a city or municipal civil registrar, or a consul general for Filipinos abroad, to change a person’s first name or nickname and to correct clerical or typographical errors in the civil register without the need for a judicial order. Before this law, even simple corrections required a court order, which made the process slow and expensive.
RA 9048 was later amended by Republic Act No. 10172 in 2012, which expanded the registrar’s authority to also correct entries on a person’s sex and the day or month of birth, again without going to court. The provisions on first name changes, however, remain rooted in the original RA 9048.
It is worth clearing up one point of confusion. A newer law, RA 11909 (2022), is sometimes mentioned in the same breath, but it deals with the permanent validity of PSA-issued birth, death, and marriage certificates, not with name changes. For changing a first name, RA 9048 and RA 10172 are the laws that matter.
You cannot change your name just because you want to
This is the part many people miss. You cannot file simply because you have grown tired of your name. Section 4 of RA 9048 sets out three valid grounds for a change of first name or nickname: the name is ridiculous, tainted with dishonor, or extremely difficult to write or pronounce; or you have habitually used and are publicly known by another name in your community.
Your petition needs to fall under one of these grounds, and you can only file a petition once. The civil registry office also keeps a record of the previous entry that was changed.
Where to file
You file a verified petition with the local civil registry office of the city or municipality where your birth was registered. If your birth was reported abroad through a Philippine Foreign Service Post, you may file with the relevant Philippine Embassy or Consulate.
There is also a provision for those who no longer live where their record is kept. If you are domiciled somewhere different from where the target document is registered, you may file at the local civil registry office in your current place of residence, and your petition is then treated as a migrant petition and forwarded accordingly.
The publication requirement
Here is where the real version of the “notarization” joke comes in. A change of first name is not a private matter that you can simply have stamped. Under Section 5 of RA 9048, a petition for change of first name must be published at least once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation. This public notice is a mandatory part of the process, and the cost is shouldered by the petitioner.
This publication step is one reason the process takes time and money, and it is also why local newspapers regularly carry these notices.
Indicative costs
Fees are set by regulation but can vary slightly by locality, so treat the following as a guide rather than a fixed price list, and confirm with your local civil registrar before filing.
For a change of first name filed within the Philippines, the filing fee is in the region of three thousand pesos. Plain clerical corrections are cheaper, at roughly one thousand pesos. For Filipinos filing abroad, the change of first name fee is around fifty US dollars, with corrections at about twenty-five US dollars. On top of the filing fee, publication can run anywhere from roughly two thousand to five thousand pesos depending on the newspaper, plus smaller amounts for notarization and certified document copies. Indigent petitioners may have fees waived upon certification from the Municipal Social Welfare Officer.
How long it takes
Again, treat this as indicative. Based on one detailed breakdown of the administrative steps, you can expect roughly five working days from filing to acceptance, two weeks for the newspaper publication, a posting or waiting period of around ten to fifteen days, about five working days for the decision, and then a further one to two months for endorsement by the Office of the Civil Registrar General. In practice, the whole cycle commonly stretches over several months.
What RA 9048 does not cover
The administrative route has limits. RA 9048, as amended, covers first names, nicknames, and minor clerical or typographical corrections, along with the sex and day or month of birth corrections added by RA 10172. It does not cover changes to your surname, nor substantial changes affecting nationality, status, age, or other major entries beyond what the law specifically allows. Those typically still require a court petition. If your situation falls outside the administrative grounds, you will likely need to consult a lawyer about a judicial proceeding.
The bottom line
So could the orange really become “Sharmaine”? Only if the name qualified under one of the three legal grounds, the petition was filed with the right civil registrar, the notice was published in a newspaper for two consecutive weeks, the fees were paid, and the registrar approved it. A trip to the notary, by itself, would not do it.
Because fees, forms, and processing times are periodically updated, anyone seriously considering a name change should verify the current requirements directly with their local civil registry office or the Philippine Statistics Authority before filing.
