SDCL 1-1-24 provides:
In this state the rules of the common law, including the rules of the law merchant, are in force, except where they conflict with the will of the sovereign power, expressed in the manner stated in § 1-1-23.

Ogle v. Circuit Ct., Tenth Jud. Circuit, 227 NW 2d 621 - SD: Supreme Court 1975 states:
The great weight of authority recognizes that at common law one was free to change his name without legal proceedings and that statutory name change procedures do not supplant this right but aid it by the official recordation of those changes. This right is generally conditioned only on the absence of fraudulent purpose. Clinton v. Morrow, 1952, 220 Ark. 377, 247 S.W.2d 1015; Petition of Merolevitz, 1946, 320 Mass. 448, 70 N.E.2d 249; In Re Ross, 1937, 8 Cal.2d 608, 67 P.2d 94, 110 A.L.R. 217.

Petition of Larson, 295 NW 2d 733 - SD: Supreme Court 1980 states:
In Ogle v. Circuit Court, Tenth (Now Sixth) Judicial Circuit, 89 S.D. 18, 227 N.W.2d 621 (1975), this Court held that at common law an individual was free to change his name without legal proceedings and that the primary purpose of our statutory change of name provisions was not to supplant or abrogate the common law right.



Affidavit