Aiden Sagerman CC’24 Earns the Gates Cambridge Scholarship
Legal Name
A Legal Name is the name that appears on your passport, driver’s license, birth certificate, or U.S. Social Security Card. Your name of record is the name listed in the Columbia University Student Information System. To request a name change, you may do so in person or by mail. If you are no longer a current student at the University and would like to change your name of record, you must mail a notarized Name Change Affidavit along with photocopies of the required forms of ID to the Office of the University Registrar to the address below.
Copies of the following documents are required:
Note: If you have a preferred/chosen name in Vergil and submit a subsequent legal name change, you must delete your preferred name in Vergil in order for the new legal name to appear.
Office of the University Registrar – Student Service Center
Columbia University
210 Kent Hall, MC 9202
1140 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10027
Office of the University Registrar - Registration & Enrollment Services
Columbia University
154 Haven Avenue, Room 402
New York, NY 10032
Preferred/Chosen Name
Columbia University recognizes that some students prefer to identify themselves by a First Name and/or Middle Name other than their Legal Name. For this reason, beginning in the Spring 2016 semester, the University will enable students to use a “Preferred/Chosen Name” where possible in the course of University business and education.
Under Columbia’s “Preferred/Chosen Name” policy, any current student may choose to identify a Preferred/Chosen First and/or Middle Name in addition to the Legal Name. Students may request this service via a link in Vergil. All requests are reviewed by the University Registrar’s Office.
Note: If you have a preferred/chosen name in SSOL and submit a subsequent legal name change, you must delete your preferred/chosen name in SSOL in order for the new legal name to appear.
To learn more about Columbia’s “Preferred/Chosen Name” Policy, read our Frequently Asked Questions.