This is awesome! I was super nervous when I went into the court for my name change, but the judge was super nice. She said that approving name changes was a "nice way to end the week" because it made people feel good. ^_^

@2 Lucretia That is the best response. We shouldn't be obsessing over whether some people have it "as bad" or "worse" than others, all problems deserve a compassionate response. And like @3 dvs99 noted, there's not much reason for to deny it. BTW you do have to make a sworn statement that you're not committing fraud and you're not trying to dodge debts, so if you are trying to do that then you won't just be annoying the collector you'll be committing perjury, which is surprisingly harsh - it's a felony, which can have frankly unjust consequences for a person's future, considering that many employers ask whether or not you're a felon before hiring you.