Help & advice
Can I change my name to anything?
Very nearly. No UK law lists the names you may not have, so a Deed Poll can give you almost any name, but we turn down digits and symbols, unearned titles and ranks, and names that offend or that nobody could say aloud. HM Passport Office then applies rules of its own on top.
- Every name read by a paralegal
- Accepted, or your money back
Try a name
Every name is checked against these rules:
- Letters only, with a hyphen or an apostrophe where a real name uses one
- A forename and a surname
- No title, rank or qualification you do not hold
- Nothing offensive, and nothing nobody can pronounce
A paralegal still reads it before anything is drafted.
Ask a paralegal about this name
What it cannot tell you: whether a name is offensive in any language, whether people can pronounce it, whether it is a brand or a famous person’s name, whether it reads as a phrase, or how HM Passport Office will apply its own rules.
Names that will be refused
No law lists them. These are the names we will not draft. HM Passport Office has rules of its own, set out further down, and they are not always the same as ours.
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Numbers and symbols
Letters only, with an apostrophe or a hyphen where a real name uses one. We do not draft numbers or any other punctuation, and a passport cannot show them as written either.
Refused
Jonny7Money$FineO’ConnorSmith-Jones
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Titles and ranks you do not hold
Lord, Lady, Sir, Baron, Duke, Reverend, Captain, Professor, and Doctor unless you can evidence it. We do not draft them as a forename either, because on a bank application the effect is the same.
Refused
LordSirProfessorFineMrMrsMissMsMx
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A single name on its own
A deed we draft records a forename and a surname, the shape most records take. HM Passport Office can issue a passport in a single name, so if one name is what you want, a Deed Poll from us is not the route to it.
Refused
Mr JoeFineJoe Reed
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Names nobody can pronounce
A string of letters with no shape to it. Your name has to be sayable and spellable by a stranger reading it off a screen.
Refused
Gyhvennhacklyxza -
Vulgar or offensive names
A swear word used as a forename, a slur aimed at a group of people, a blasphemy, or a name whose only purpose is to shock the person reading it out. HM Passport Office will not print one either.
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Names that promote crime
Anything that reads as an endorsement of an illegal act, of an illegal drug, or of a banned organisation. HM Passport Office will not print one either.
No law limits the length, but a passport does
No law sets a maximum length for a name. HM Passport Office sets one for passports: its application takes up to 30 characters for your forenames and 30 for your surname. A longer name is shortened in the passport, and if you will not accept the shorter version, it cannot issue one.
Bank cards, airline bookings and payroll systems have limits of their own, and each shortens a long name differently. Your documents can end up disagreeing with each other, and a boarding pass that does not match your passport is the kind of thing that stops you at a check-in desk.
If you want a long name, keep your forenames and your surname within 30 characters each, so your passport can show it in full.
Alexandra Catherine Elizabeth Montgomery-Fitzwilliam
HM Passport Office applies its own rules
A Deed Poll records that you have changed your name. It does not oblige HM Passport Office to print that name in a passport.
Its published guidance will not allow a name that could cause offence or promote crime. Its system cannot show numbers, symbols, punctuation other than hyphens and apostrophes, or accents, so numbers are spelled out, accented letters take an agreed alternative spelling, and a name longer than its fields is shortened. A deed can be entirely valid while the passport shows the name a little differently, or is refused.
In two places our rules are stricter than its own. It can print a title as part of a name, with a note that it is a name and not a title, and it can issue a passport in a single name.
The passport name rules on GOV.UK Changing the name on your passport
More about choosing a name
Can I take my partner's surname if we are not married?
Yes. At 16 or over you can take any surname by Deed Poll, including your partner’s. You do not need to be married, and nobody else has to agree.
Can I have a double-barrelled surname?
Yes. A hyphen is fine where a real name uses one, so Smith-Jones is drafted like any other surname, and so is an apostrophe, as in O’Connor.
Can I call myself Doctor?
Only if you can evidence the qualification. Without that evidence, Doctor is refused like any other title you do not hold. Ask a paralegal before you order.
Will you tell me if my name is going to be refused?
Yes. A paralegal reads every name before anything is drafted. If what you have chosen is going to be refused, we tell you and do not draft it. If a Deed Poll we drafted is ever refused, we refund you in full.
Something else? Ask a paralegal and we will answer, usually the same working day.
Related answers
Ready to change your name?
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