Help & advice
What is a Deed Poll?
A Deed Poll is the legal document that proves you have changed your name. You sign it in front of witnesses, declaring that you have dropped your old name and will use the new one for everything, and HM Passport Office, DVLA, banks and employers then update your records from it. Ours are hand-drafted by a paralegal for £18.50.
- Guaranteed acceptance
- Posted the same working day
Deed Poll noun
A legally binding document recording that you have given up one name and adopted another. It is what HM Passport Office, the DVLA, your bank and your employer ask to see before they change your records.
Inside a Deed Poll
It is short, and every part has a job. There is no space for a reason, because none is asked for. Want to see the real layout? Our Deed Poll, drawn part by part, and its wording explained phrase by phrase.
Deed Poll
Change of name deed
I give up my former name and will not use it again.
I will use my new name for everything, on every document and in every dealing.
I ask everyone to address me by my new name.
Signed as a deed by
In the old name
In the new name
In the presence of
First witness
Second witness
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The name you are giving up, in full, exactly as it appears on your current records. This is how organisations match the deed to the file they already hold.
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The name you now use, spelled the way you want it on your passport, your licence and everything else. A title such as Mr or Dr is not something a deed poll can change, so this is the name itself.
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The first of three declarations. You state that you have abandoned your former name and will not use it again.
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The second. You state that you will use your new name for everything, on every document and in every dealing.
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The third. You require other people and organisations to address you by your new name. Together, the three are the whole of the deed.
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The day the change took effect. It matters later: a replacement Deed Poll records this original date, not the day the replacement is drafted.
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Until you sign it, it is a piece of paper. You sign twice in front of your witnesses, once in your old name and once in your new name, in the spaces provided. From that moment the new name is your legal name.
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There is space for two, and we recommend using both: independent adults, over 18, not related to you and not living at your address. Each watches you sign, then signs and writes their name, address and occupation underneath. Who can witness it.
Select any part of the paper, or any line of this list.
Signed and witnessed, and not before
Until it is signed and witnessed, a Deed Poll is a piece of paper. From the moment you and your witnesses have signed, it is a deed, and your new name is your legal name.
- Space for two witnesses – and we recommend using both
- Each over 18 – not related to you, and not living at your address
- No solicitor needed – GOV.UK confirms one is not required for it to be binding
Enrolled or unenrolled
Almost every Deed Poll in use is unenrolled. Enrolment is an optional extra, and it does not make the deed any more binding.
Unenrolled
- A private document that you hold
- Fully binding once signed and witnessed
- No register, which is why nobody else holds a copy of yours, and no official number
- Nothing more to pay and nothing to wait for
Enrolled
- Recorded by the High Court, then sealed and posted back
- Published in The Gazette, with your address
- £53.05 on top, and it can take several months
- No more binding than an unenrolled deed
Should it be accepted, or will it be?
Those are different questions. Any correctly drafted Deed Poll should be accepted anywhere, including a good one you write yourself.
In practice, every organisation decides for itself whether the document in front of it is good enough. There is no official form for an unenrolled one, so banks, building societies, schools and surgeries do refuse deeds, usually ones that are drafted wrongly or look home-made. It tends to surface weeks later, at a counter, in the middle of something you needed to finish.
More about Deed Polls
Can a Deed Poll change my title as well?
No. A title such as Mr, Mrs, Sir, Lady or Doctor is outside what a deed poll can change, on GOV.UK’s guidance. DVLA updates a title on the same form it uses for a name, asking for evidence only if the title is hereditary, and HM Passport Office shows a professional title on a passport’s observations page once you send proof of it. What you may change your name to.
Do I need a solicitor to make one binding?
No. GOV.UK confirms a solicitor is not needed to draft or witness a Deed Poll for it to be legally binding. What makes it binding is signing it in front of independent adult witnesses: ours has space for two, and we recommend using both.
What happens if I lose it?
Your name does not change back. Because there is no register of unenrolled Deed Polls, nobody else holds a copy, so a lost one is drafted again as a replacement, recording the change you already made.
How do I get one?
Apply online in about five minutes. A paralegal hand-drafts it, quality control checks it, and it is posted the same working day. If one of ours 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?
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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