republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/149/hb-178.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MINORS' PETITIONS FOR NAME CHANGE.	The children of parents who divorce or were never married often share a surname with only one parent, which may lead to confusion or hardship when schools, doctors, or others fail to recognize the child’s connection with the parent with whom the child does not share a similar surname. Parents and children in such circumstances have compelling reason to seek to add a second surname to the child’s name.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	149	HB 178	Delaware HB 178 (149)	bill		enacted	Margaret Rose Henry Sean M. Lynn	1	7	2	2017-05-16	2017-08-30	openstates	ocd-bill/2a5f7aaa-dac2-4e79-8ceb-1461070a70be	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25787	ecb86372a640ea229d52e035e66c599724f26c8471e0545a1e79143e609f8870	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware HB 178 (149) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MINORS' PETITIONS FOR NAME CHANGE.

The children of parents who divorce or were never married often share a surname with only one parent, which may lead to confusion or hardship when schools, doctors, or others fail to recognize the child’s connection with the parent with whom the child does not share a similar surname. Parents and children in such circumstances have compelling reason to seek to add a second surname to the child’s name.

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• SM — 41–0 (pass) · lower
• SM — 20–0 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• Margaret Rose Henry — primary (person)
• Sean M. Lynn — primary (person)
• Bryan Townsend — cosponsor (person)
• Helene M. Keeley — cosponsor (person)
• James Johnson — cosponsor (person)
• John A. Kowalko — cosponsor (person)
• John J. Viola — cosponsor (person)
• Paul S. Baumbach — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

• 2017-05-16 Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2017-06-06 Amendment HA 1 to HB 178 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2017-06-21 Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 4 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage
• 2017-06-29 Amendment HA 1 to HB 178 - Passed In House by Voice Vote amendment-passage
• 2017-06-29 Passed By House. Votes: 41 YES passage
• 2017-07-02 Passed By Senate. Votes: 20 YES 1 ABSENT passage
• 2017-08-30 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/2a5f7aaa-dac2-4e79-8ceb-1461070a70be. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).