Guaranteed acceptance or your money backDispatched the same working dayAccepted by HM Passport Office, DVLA & HMRC
Drafted by paralegals since 2000
Aged 16 or 17
At 16 or 17, the change is yours to make. Under GOV.UK’s rules a deed poll is yours to make from your 16th birthday, and HM Passport Office tells its staff that at 16 a person can legally change their name without the agreement of everyone with parental responsibility. Order the Adult Deed Poll, not the Child one, and sign it yourself in front of two adult witnesses. It costs the same £18.50, and it is posted the same working day.
Our Child Deed Poll is for children under 16, applied for and signed by a parent. At 16 or 17 the name being changed is yours, so you order the Adult Deed Poll, fill in the order yourself and sign the deed yourself. Nobody signs on your behalf, and nobody has to give permission.
The two cost the same. What differs is who makes the change, and who has to agree to it.
At 16 or 17: yours
Under 16
Exactly as an adult of any age does. The new name is yours to use from the moment it is signed and witnessed, and there is nothing to send back to us.
Not your parents. We ask for witnesses who are not related to you and do not live with you, so a parent, brother or sister cannot be one. A teacher, a neighbour or a family friend can. Where people find a witness.
HM Passport Office’s guidance on changes of name names three situations where a 16 or 17 year old may still need consent. If none applies to you, the decision is yours.
Some court orders stop a name changing without the consent of everyone with parental responsibility. HM Passport Office checks any order to see what consent it needs.
HM Passport Office says that where a care order or court order is in place, everyone with parental responsibility must consent to a change of name until you are 18.
If someone else changed your name when you were younger, the passport office asks for consent to that change. Its guidance says that if you cannot get it, you can make a new deed poll yourself.
The full rules, with consent and enrolling under 18: the Deed Polls Online handbook, our sister site, explains changing your name at 16 or 17.
DVLA and HM Passport Office both want the original Deed Poll, so the two go one at a time. Many other organisations accept a certified copy.
Driving licence
Free on form D1 by post, with the original Deed Poll and one document in your new name. A school or college report dated after the deed is on DVLA’s list. Your provisional licence, step by step.
Passport
HM Passport Office treats you as able to change your own name and apply for an adult passport at 16, and unless you need help to apply, it will not take the application from anyone else. Online, an adult passport costs £102.
We do not help with passport applications
Apply yourself, direct with HM Passport Office on GOV.UK or through a Post Office. Never use any other website, company or agent.
Everyone else
Start with the ones that send you post: DVLA asks for a document in your new name, and HM Passport Office for evidence that you use it. Who to tell, and in what order.
Choose the Adult Deed Poll and give your name as it is now, the name you want, and the address the deed should be posted to. A paralegal drafts it, quality control checks every name and date, and it goes in the post the same working day.
Add certified copies at the checkout if your school, college, bank or employer would rather keep a copy than see the original. If the name you want is unusual, check what you can change it to first.
The Adult Deed Poll
£18.50
Yes. GOV.UK lets anyone from 16 make their own deed poll, and HM Passport Office tells its staff that a person of 16 can change their name lawfully without consent from everyone holding parental responsibility. The exceptions are a court order or care order about you. The exceptions.
The Adult Deed Poll. Our Child Deed Poll is for children under 16 and is signed by a parent; from 16 you order and sign your own, at the same £18.50. Adult or Child.
No, unless a court order or care order about you says otherwise. Where there is no court order, HM Passport Office says it will not need the consent of anyone with parental responsibility, and will not accept objections from them, when a 16 or 17 year old changed their own name.
We ask for witnesses who are adults, not related to you and not living with you, so a parent cannot be one. GOV.UK says witnesses must be 18 or over, and that some organisations will not accept a deed poll witnessed by a close relative or someone at the same address. Finding a witness.
Yes. HM Passport Office says a 16 year old can change their name and apply for an adult passport, and it expects the application from you, not a parent. We do not help with passport applications: make the application yourself, direct to HM Passport Office, through GOV.UK or a Post Office. Your passport.
No. Enrolling at the High Court is optional, and enrolment makes no difference to whether a Deed Poll is accepted. Until you are 18 the application would come from a parent or guardian, GOV.UK says, with your own signed letter of agreement, witnessed by an adult who is not your relative.
Something else? Ask a paralegal and we will answer, usually the same working day.
Apply online in about five minutes for the Adult Deed Poll. A paralegal drafts it, quality control checks it, and it is posted the same working day, guaranteed to be accepted.
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