Help & advice
What documentation will I need to change my name?
To change your name by Deed Poll with us, you need no documents at all: the name you use now, the name you want, your title and your address are typed into a five-minute application, and nothing is posted. Afterwards, HM Passport Office and DVLA each want your signed original Deed Poll plus one document already in your new name, and many other organisations take a certified copy.
- Nothing to post us
- No proof of identity needed
What we need from you
Four details, typed into the application, which takes about five minutes.
- Your current name in full
- Jane Anne Smith
- Exactly as your passport or birth certificate has it, middle names and all
- Your new name in full
- Jane Anne Taylor
- Spelled the way you want it printed from now on
- Your title
- Ms
- Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Mx, Dr if you hold the qualification, or none
- Your address
- 12 High Street, Anytown
- It appears on the deed, and it is where the envelope goes
Nothing is posted to us. No birth certificate, passport, utility bill or photograph, and nothing to print, sign and return before we draft.
Why we do not ask for proof of identity
A Deed Poll is a declaration you make about yourself. It is not an application to an authority that has to be satisfied you are who you say you are, and nobody grants you a change of name.
What makes it binding is your signature and your witnesses’ signatures, not a check we run beforehand. GOV.UK confirms you do not need a solicitor for it to be binding either.
What stops somebody lying on one is twofold. You are making a formal declaration in a deed, and every organisation you then hand it to checks the old name on it against the records it already holds on you.
What you do need is two people
Not a document. Two independent adults to watch you sign, one for each witness space on your Deed Poll. Each must be:
- Aged over 18
- Not related to you
- Not living at your address
If the Deed Poll is for a child
A Child Deed Poll needs a little more, because the person whose name is changing is not the person signing.
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The child’s names and date of birth
Their current name and their new name in full, and the date they were born.
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Everyone with parental responsibility
Each of them named, with their address.
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How each of them holds it
As the mother, a married father, an unmarried father named on the birth certificate, a guardian, or under a court order.
You still send us nothing. We do not need to see the birth certificate to draft the deed, though we do need to know who is named on it, because that is often what decides who holds parental responsibility. The Child Deed Poll.
What other organisations ask for
This is the list that is actually long, and none of it is ours. Every organisation holding your records runs its own process, and what they want falls into three kinds of thing.
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The Deed Poll, or a certified copy of it
HM Passport Office and the DVLA ask for the original, and HM Passport Office posts it back. Many others take a certified copy and keep it, which is the whole reason copies matter.
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Their own form
HM Passport Office has an application form. The DVLA has form D1 for the licence, and the vehicle log book has its own section for a new name. Banks, employers, pension providers and universities each have their own, usually online.
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Photographs, and sometimes more
A new passport needs a new photograph to the published specification. Some applications also ask for your birth certificate, or for the old document to be returned with the form.
Fees and processing times change, so take them from GOV.UK rather than from us. Who to tell about your new name covers the DVLA, HMRC and everyone else holding your records.
Why certified copies matter here
The original has to go to HM Passport Office and the DVLA, and it is away while they have it. Many other organisations accept a certified copy and keep it, so copies let you tell them at the same time. Copies cost from £6 for 2, up to £25 for 20, and are chosen at the checkout.
How many certified copies will you need?
A certified copy is one we draft and certify alongside your Deed Poll, so you can deal with several organisations at once instead of one after another. Tick what you have, and say how many of each: two banks needs two copies. These are the 14 that normally keep what you send. HM Passport Office and the DVLA ask for the original itself, and most other places look at it and hand it back.
Money
Home and property
Work, health and study
More about the documents you need
Can I send my Deed Poll off before it is signed?
No. It has to be signed in front of your witnesses first. Until it is signed and witnessed there is nothing to send, and an unsigned deed will come back to you. How to sign and witness it.
Will I get my documents back?
From HM Passport Office, yes: it posts your supporting documents back separately, by tracked post, once the new passport is printed. The DVLA asks for originals too. Others, such as HM Land Registry, keep a certified copy on file, which is why ordering copies keeps your original with you. The who-to-tell list marks the ones that normally keep a copy.
Will HM Passport Office take a certified copy instead of the original?
No. HM Passport Office asks for the original Deed Poll, signed in your old and new names and witnessed, and posts it back once it has finished. A certified copy, a photocopy or a scan will not do. Certified copies are for the rest of your list, so you can tell them while the original is away. Changing the name on your passport.
Does my Deed Poll need to be enrolled?
No. Enrolment at the Royal Courts of Justice is optional, costs £53.05 and does not make a deed more likely to be accepted. What an organisation looks at is the document in front of it: whether it is properly drafted and properly witnessed. More on enrolment.
Can a solicitor certify copies of my Deed Poll instead?
Yes. A solicitor or a notary public can certify a copy, and sets their own fee for doing it. Ours are drafted alongside your Deed Poll and certified as true copies of it. Copies of your Deed Poll.
Is there a deadline for telling everyone?
There is no general deadline, but a few have rules of their own. The law says a driving licence must be surrendered straight away once the name on it is no longer correct, and GOV.UK warns of a fine of up to £1,000 for not telling DVLA about a new name on your vehicle log book. Registered offenders must tell the police within 3 days, and anyone on probation has to follow the terms they were given. Who to tell, and in what order.
Something else? Ask a paralegal and we will answer, usually the same working day.
Related answers
Ready to change your name?
Apply online in about five minutes. Your Deed Poll is drafted, checked and dispatched the same working day, and guaranteed to be accepted.
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