Wickham Wills

Change of name by Deed Poll in England and Wales

What Name Can You Use?

You can use any name you wish, and it becomes your name by common usage. However your legal name is governed by the rules listed below. Some organisations will only recognise and issue documents in your legal name. With an increase in terrorism and fraud, this restriction is likely to increase; consequently a passport and credit cards in different names could cause problems. The most effective way to change your legal name is by Deed Poll.

Birth Certificates and Children: There are limited opportunities to correct mistakes soon after the registration, but these quickly expire and the child's legal names remains those recorded on their birth certificate. An exception is if you are legally adopted, then at the time of adoption, your name changes to that of the adopting parents and a birth certificate is issued in the new name.

Men: The legal family name is always that given on the birth certificate,

Women: The legal family name is that given on your birth certificate, unless you are a married woman. Once married, women can take their husband's family name or retain their own. Although as all those who use both names after marriage know, there are advantages in continuity for business purposes, but lots of confusion as a down side. If using both names after marriage, the legal name is that of the husband.

At the time of divorce, (decree absolute), a woman can revert to using her maiden name. However if she continues to use her married name, that remains her legal name. So if she later wants to revert to her maiden name being her legal name, she needs to change it by Deed Poll. Even if reverting to a maiden name at the time of divorce, it is often simpler to change it by Deed Poll.

Do You Need To Change Your Family Name?

English law allows people by common usage to use any name they wish. In many cases this does not cause problems. However once people start to deal with organisations that require birth certificates and marriage certificates problems start to occur. Often organisation will refuse to issue a document in the commonly used name. So you could end up unable to cash Travellers Cheques, or use credit cards, because your passport name does not match!

When Should You Consider Changing Your Name By Deed Poll

• Are there problems because the family name you use is not the one on your birth certificate or your husband's if you are a woman?
• Is there a forename you hate and would rather it did not appear on official documents.
• Would you like to use your partner's family name if you are living with someone but are not married?
• Would it help if your children had the same family name as you?
• If you are married would you like to legally combine both family names?

Changing Your Name By Deed Poll Can Be Easily Arranged

Contact us if legally changing your name would be more convenient, or just a nice thing to do. We can arrange for you to change your name in a convenient manner.

# Different rules apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland