Title Examination Standards
Chapter 1, App.
Chapter 5. Name Variances
§5.2. Variance Between Signature of Body of Deed and Acknowledgment.

Where the given name or names, or the initials, as used in a grantor's signature on a deed vary from the grantor's name as it appears in the body of the deed, but the grantor's name as given in the certificate of acknowledgment agrees with either the signature or the body of the deed, the certificate of acknowledgment should be accepted as providing adequate identification.

Authority: 16 O.S. § 33; Patton & Palomar on Land Titles § 79 & 80 (3d ed. 2003); Basye, Clearing Land Titles § 36 (1953); 1 C.J.S. Acknowledgments § 92(3); Woodward v. McCollum, 16 N.D. 42, 111 N.W. 623 (1907) (Henry S. Woodward and Harry S. Woodward); Blomberg v. Montgomery, 69 Minn. 149, 72 N.W. 56 (1897) (Isabella A. Dern and Isabella Dern, Myrtie B. Thorp and Myrtie Thorp, and George B. Conwell, Sr., and G.B. Conwell, Sr.); Paxton v. Ross, 89 Iowa 661, 57 N.W. 428 (1894) (Michael Thompson and M. Thompson); Rupert v. Penner, 35 Neb. 587, 53 N.W. 598, 17 L.R.A. 824 (1892) (Archibald T. Finn and Arch T. Finn); Gardner v. City of McAlester, 198 Okla. 547, 179 P.2d 894 (1946); O'Banion v. Morris Plan Industrial Bank, 201 Okla. 256, 204 P.2d 872 (1948); L. Simes & C. Taylor, Model Title Standards, p. 38 (1960). Comment: The Oklahoma form of acknowledgment for individuals provides that the official taking the acknowledgment shall certify that the person named was known to the official to be the identical person who executed the instrument. This is similar to the acknowledgment forms in most other states and is sufficient to create a presumption of identity when the signature differs from the body of the deed but the acknowledgment agrees with one or the other. The cases from North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, cited above, support this rule and are typical of the many cases on the subject. No Oklahoma cases directly in point have been found. However, in the Gardner and O'Banion cases, supra, the Court held the acknowledgments sufficient to identify the persons executing the instruments although the names were omitted from the acknowledgments. This indicates the rule will be sustained in Oklahoma, if and when the point is raised.

Adopted as 5.2, December 2, 1961, 32 O.B.A.J 2280 (1961), printed id. at 1865-66, 1920-21, 1969-70 & 2029-30.

The 2020 Title Examination Standards Sub-Committee of the Real Property Law Section recommended the following editorial changes to the Title Standards as they appear on OSCN to bring the printed handbook and OSCN into conformity. The Real Property Section approved the proposal, and the House of Delegates adopted the amendment on November 13, 2020. (superseded document available)