Yep; this was in Pennsylvania, which is apparently one of the more onerous states.
The stated purpose is so that you can't change your name in order to (for example) escape debt. So the way to do this is to pay to put an announcement in a legal periodical. She had to do it in two separate places: one was mandated (The Legal Intelligencer, which sounds like something out of Harry Potter), and she had the choice of a few others, of which she picked the cheapest one.
The ads themselves didn't cost $1000, but the whole process (including changing the name on her passport, etc.) came close to that.
The stated purpose is so that you can't change your name in order to (for example) escape debt. So the way to do this is to pay to put an announcement in a legal periodical. She had to do it in two separate places: one was mandated (The Legal Intelligencer, which sounds like something out of Harry Potter), and she had the choice of a few others, of which she picked the cheapest one.
The ads themselves didn't cost $1000, but the whole process (including changing the name on her passport, etc.) came close to that.