Whenever a decree of divorce is granted, the trial court may, in its discretion or upon the application of either party by the terms of the decree, restore to the woman her maiden name or the name she legally bore prior to her marriage to the husband in the divorce suit. All decrees of divorce previously entered restoring to the divorced woman her former name under this section are declared legal and valid and effective from their date of entry.
S.D. Codified Laws § 25-4-47
Restoration of former name to wife--Validation of prior decrees
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Ogle v. Circuit Court, Tenth (Now Sixth) Judicial Circuit (1975)
Most recently applied in Keegan v. Gudahl (December 1994)
Source: SDC 1939, § 14.0702; SL 1983, ch 205.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.