San Francisco, and California Notaries Public face dilemmas where upon arrival to an appoint, comparison between the identification and the document reveals that the names do not match. This can occur for many reasons, such as marriage, legal name changes, divorce, use of a nickname, middle names, names that are too extensive to fit on a drivers license, and many more reasons.
Simply put, the name on the identification and the document to be notarized MUST always match. It does not have to be the full name of the person, middle names can be left off of the document although be present on the identification.
Some examples of names and variations that can be notarized are as follows. The name of the identification is John Jones Smith. The name that can be notarized on a document can be any of the following: John Smith, John J. Smith, John Jones Smith. He cannot be notarized as John A Smith, John Smith-JOnes, or Johnny Smith.
Notarization of “nicknames” is prohibited. You can only be notarized with your legal name as established by your satisfactory identification.
If the document you are needing notarization that has the name discrepancy was self prepped, ensure that you correct it to have your legal name as it appears on the identification you are using if you want to be able to be notarized.
If you were given a document to be notarized that was prepared by someone else, and your name is not correct, contact the person who is requesting the document and inform them of the discrepancy. Explain to the agency or person that the name they are listing is not your legal name and therefore cannot be notarized as such.
If you have questions regarding how to be legally notarized, hire a lawyer to assist you in the correcting of documents, or rectification of your name discrepancy problem.
When you are properly prepared to have your documents notarized, and there are no name discrepancy issues, contact San Francisco Mobile Notary and we will be happy to notarize for you.