He shouldn’t get his hopes up. His chances are slim to none if the stbx wife is not willing. Even in a marriage without children a judge will not grant that. Her current last name belongs to her legally. What if the wife has established herself professionally using her married name? Again, it is extremely unlikely that any judge is going to force her to go back to using her former name if she doesn’t want to. Looking on the bright side, the offended stbx husband could always change his last name ;)