Name changing

[Funkstar]

There are about 3 people which use my first name, everyone else refers to me by my last one.

Really? didn't know that.

I don't think anyone has ever calle dmy by my last name. Which is a good thing btw! A few friends did start calling me Mr D for some reasonwhile at uni, didn't last though.

[TAKTAK]

well it's just like responding to a nickname... so it would be easy to get used to for me... i have quite alot of nicknames anyway (MB, Marsbar, Marsden, Crowst, Crowsten, Crowsten Marsden, TAK, TAKTAK and ofcourse.. TICTAC) so i think it would be very easy to get used to a name change.

[Stewart]

Only £34, huh? And you can change it to anything?

If someone changes their name to Eric Fail, I'll give them... no money, but much respect.

[Saracen]

how much does it cost to legally change your name?

Nothing. Well, it doesn't need to cost anything, in most circumstances.

For most people and most purposes, you do NOT need a deed poll. In fact, you can just pick a new name and start using it, providing you're not doing it for illicit or illegal purposes, i.e. for deception.

You may, however, come across instances where further evidence of having changed your name is required, but that can often be documents other than a deed poll, such as letter from someone that has known you in both names, like a policeman, GP, priest, solicitor, etc. It may even just be a "public announcement", such as a declaration in a local newspaper. A rather more formal version is a statutory declaration, and that will suffice for all but a few purposes. And you can get help doing that from people like CAB.

Even if you do need a deed poll, it doesn't need to cost anything. You can do it yourself .... but it needs to be witnessed, and there are restrictions on who can witness it, though they aren't particularly tight.

However, there are a few gotchas. Some organisations will be less amenable to a name change without a deed poll, even if it's not strictly necessary, and so having one is a way of making life easier for yourself by avoiding arguments about it. Another gotcha is that there are some restrictions on how a deed poll is worded, and on who can witness it. It's NOT difficult to get round these, and a deed poll is actually, legally, a pretty simple document. There are also complications where a minor is involved, or another person, and especially if the person is not a UK citizen.

There's no official form of deed poll, and no official mandatory register of them. You can, however, have the deed "enrolled" by the Courts, and there's a document from HM Court Service (downloadable) that both supplies an acceptable form of wording (covering a number of situations), and will detail the fees (about £65) for enrolling it, and putting out the necessary advert in the London Gazette. But you do not need to do this. And that £65 covers enrolment, not the deed itself .... and there's more onerous demands on things like witness qualifications too.

So, the long and short is that it doesn't need to cost anything to change your name, and doesn't need a deed poll (though that will be required for some subsequent uses).

If you do decide on a deed poll, you can :-

- do it yourself, and have it cost nothing
- pay a deed service, and have it cost anything from about £10 to £100
- pay a solicitor to do it, and probably have it cost anything from £75 to £200 or more

Doing it yourself is certainly cheap, but you could get it wrong and find it's not legally acceptable. Doing it via a deed service ensures that the deed itself is correctly worded provided you pick a competent service (and anyone, including me, could set up a web site and do into business doing it ), but if you've something peculiar in your circumstances, it might not be picked up by that sort of service which, necessarily, has limited interaction and information exchange.

Clearly, if you use a solicitor (assuming it's a competent one), it should ensure that they ask the right questions, understand the implications and possible pitfalls, get the wording right and don't miss out or mess up anything. But it'll cost more.


Oh, and just for completeness, even a deed poll doesn't erase you're previous identity. It won't change your birth certificate, for instance. That's a rather more involved process. And there are restrictions on the impact on Christian forenames, as per Parrott, Cox v Parrott, which will put some confusion in the legal status, especially if you go down the HM Court Service route, but it doesn't affect the the effectiveness of a properly prepared and executed deed poll.

And, if you really want to be pretentious, you can get your name changed either by HM The Queen, or by Act of Parliament. Good luck organising (and paying for) either of those, though.

[matty-hodgson]

is there anything you don't know?!

[Saracen]

A lot. I had to look up some of that detail ..... but the deed poll question has come up before, several times, so I've read up on it before because it's an interesting question. That post is a synthesis of what I already knew, fleshed out by details provided courtesy of Googling.

[Allen]

Does anyone ever get called by their last name, constantly?

There are about 3 people which use my first name, everyone else refers to me by my last one.

At work I get called by my surname a fair bit, but that's because my Supervisor is called Alan and one of the Managers nearby me is also called Alan. The 3 of us sit within 3m of each other. You can imagine the annoyance.

[Nick]

is there anything you don't know?!

Single Unified Theory?

Ok, take it down a notch, String Theory.

Oh if you really wanna go for gold... what a woman wants !

Just had a thought: Anyone remember the original Record Breakers series with Roy Castle and Norris McWhirter? They had a section on there where you could challenge Norris on records and it was pretty damn impressive, him giving all the answers in superb detail.

I only saw him beaten once, when he was asked which tree has the record the most leaves... he knew the oldest tree, the tallest, slowest growing and so on but didn't know which had the most leaves...

Anyhoo, I reckon we should have an 'Ask Saracen' section... any question is allowed and the HEXUS.fontofallknowledge can impress the crap out of us (as he regularly does now).

[Saracen]

Single Unified Theory?

Ok, take it down a notch, String Theory.

Oh if you really wanna go for gold... what a woman wants !

Weeeeeell, a friend of mine is a particle physicist (works on a very large accelerator), and he's been trying to educate me. Largely unsuccessfully, I might add. He did succeed in giving me a raging headache from the effort, though.

......

Oh if you really wanna go for gold... what a woman wants !

What do I look like? God?

Mind you, I asked God that question once .... and she told me that, right now, she wanted me to get back in the kitchen and finish washing the dishes, so I'm assuming at least right then, that that was what she wanted.

.....

Anyhoo, I reckon we should have an 'Ask Saracen' section... ......

Oh, no. No no no no no. Nope, uh-uh, naw, no way. Nein, non, nyet, nej, nee, na, nem, iya, ne-keh, zhog and meiyou.

[Whiternoise]

i've always wanted to chance my first name every since i was young.
Matthew is just soooooo boring and common!
and it's hebrew.
i want something English that i can be proud of.

Something wrong with the Red Sea Pedestrians?

Joshua here, very common, but i'm happy with it. Surname on the other hand.. god forbid i marry someone with a double barrelled surname - unless we fancy a child with a quad-barrel

[yamangman]

As far as I'm aware there is no precedent for any of this 'deed poll' stuff. You may adopt whichever name you wish at any time you like. Though of course I'm sure that it would be less hassle in the long run to speak to lawyer and 'get it done officially'.

[IBM]

i've always wanted to chance my first name every since i was young.
Matthew is just soooooo boring and common!
and it's hebrew.
i want something English that i can be proud of.

Like what? So what if it's hebrew, or martian for that matter? go back far enough and just about every name comes from (or is influenced by) somewhere else. You want something english? Make something up and go with that....definately English. As English as some Chav calling their caravan kiddy 'Diamantine' anyways....

A while back I had my surname double barrelled.

Why on earth would you want to do that?

[sammyc]

What do I look like? God? Mind you, I asked God that question once ....

This is what iGod has to say on the subject

Me:
what does a woman want?
God:
Is this a riddle?
Me:
no, i would really like to know
God:
It seems like a riddle to me. Where would you look for the answer?
Me:
maybe you could ask Saracen..?
God:
Perhaps. I could but let's get back to that later.
Me:
Ok. Next question - what should JK Ferret change his name to?
God:
Uh. Whatever you like.
Me:
Have you ever considered changing your name?
God:
Of course I have considered it.
Me:
What name would you choose?
God:
That's a good question....

...helpful as ever.

@ JK; do you already introduce yourself to new people you meet as 'JK'? Just thinking that if most people already call you that, you're only having to put up with your actual name from family (presumably) & on official stuff. Guess you could consider adding an actual first J name to yours so that in effect you could use JK for pretty much most things and it'd be a halfway house?
Also the younger you are when you start using a different name the better, because everyone you meet from then on won't know you as anything else - unless you then go off your new name & change back...

[format]

I know a guy who changed his name to Darth Vader, no joke.
I'm quite happy with my name, I've only ever found one person with the same first name as me

[Stewart]

Like what?

Erm... something more English?

Why on earth would you want to do that?

Haha, yeah, I was wondering why anyone would get their name double barrelled.

[shelley bda]

I wanted to change my name when I was younger. Michelle just sounded so boring lol, but then I have always been known as Shelley anyway, I used to hate it when People used my proper name

Would of given me right arm to have been able to change my surname went through School with the name "Curry" and all the associated jokes ( and yes Curry is an Olde English name, nothing to do with foods from foreign countries ) how glad I was to finally get married and be rid lol