We did look into it carefully - there’s a line of books of legal self-help books called Nolo Press that we used, specifically for the state we lived in. According to the book we followed, there were two legal methods - doing through the court, or doing with a specific form - included in the book - getting it notarized, and then sending an announcement (form also in the book) to the newspaper a certain number of times. Also, DH (that’s Dear Husband!) had to obtain a new passport with the new name within a certain time frame, and had to immediately start using his new name on every paper/account/bill etc that had his name on it.
(DW is Dear Wife, DD is Dear Daughter, DS is Dear Son, etc)
I like the acronymn. I will start using it with my girlfriend. DL Dear Lover, ML My Love- My Life,
Thank you for your reply.