Notary Terminology

This is perhaps the most commonly used term, and probably the one that most people get right. 

“Notarize,” a verb, means a notary public’s performance of all the steps and formalities needed to perform a notarial act authorized by the notary’s state laws. 

Most people consider the terms “notarize” or “notarizing” to mean the steps that occur when a person’s signing of a document or form requires them to appear before a notary public.  But notaries also perform notarial acts that don’t involve a signature on a document, such as when they verbally administer an oath or affirmation to a person taking an oath of office.  Those are forms of “notarizing,” also.

Just another way of saying “notarize.” “Notarization” is often used in the past tense, for example, “A notary performed a notarization for me today, they notarized my signature on an agreement I signed.”

This important, all-inclusive term refers to any and every notarial duty that a notary’s state law authorizes them to perform. These acts include acknowledgments, verifications and witnessings of a person’s signature on a document; verbal oaths and affirmations for purposes such as swearing-in a person to public office; certifications of “true” copies of a document (where authorized); and more, depending entirely on the notary’s state laws and administrative rules.

Notaries in all U.S. states can notarize signatures, but not all states authorize their notaries to perform less common notarial acts such as certifying true copies of documents. That’s another interesting wrinkle in the term “notarial act.” It can refer to a variety of different authorized notarial duties, depending on the state where the notary is commissioned.

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