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---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MINORS' PETITIONS FOR NAME CHANGE."
description: "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 childs 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 childs name."
jurisdiction: "us/states/de"
legislature: "Delaware General Assembly"
session: "149"
identifier: "HB 178"
citation: "Delaware HB 178 (149)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Margaret Rose Henry", "Sean M. Lynn"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 7
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2017-05-16"
last_action: "2017-08-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2a5f7aaa-dac2-4e79-8ceb-1461070a70be"
source_url: "https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=25787"
source_hash: "ecb86372a640ea229d52e035e66c599724f26c8471e0545a1e79143e609f8870"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["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 childs 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 childs name.
## Version chain
The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=25787&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=HB178)
## Votes
- SM — **410** (pass) · lower
- SM — **200** (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](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2a5f7aaa-dac2-4e79-8ceb-1461070a70be`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).