Urgent Question!

I’m heading to a signing shortly and noticed one of the notarizations for Utah (I’m in CA) is to notarize that the person, John Doe, John S. Doe, John Sam Doe are one and the same person. Can I notarize that?? Wouldn’t they have to show a government photo ID with all of those name variations??

Are you talking about the name/signature affidavit? If you are, then you need to ask them if they have been know by all of those names. If they have not, then they need to line through the one(s) they have not been know by, initial, and write ‘never known as’. You do not need to see IDs for all of those name variations. If the notarial certificate has a state or county where you are not at, then line through those, initial, and correct them to the county and state that you are doing the notarization in.

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Adding to what davismobilenotary3 said, you don’t need to see ID in all 3 name variations. The ID you see has to support the name in your notarial certificate. That doesn’t mean the name in the certificate has to be letter-for-letter identical to what is on the ID. It means that you, while reasonably relying on the ID, are satisfied that the signer is entitled to use the name in the notarial certificate.

Concur with davismobilenotary3 with a minor revision:

Most title/escrow companies that I work with very explicitly state “DO NOT LINE THROUGH ANY NAMES.” If they’ve never been known as a name, place a circle around that name, have them write “never known as” and they initial it next to their hand-written note of “never known as.”

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