Legally change your name by Deed Poll

Anyone aged 16 or over can change their own name by Deed Poll. For a child under 16, a parent applies through our Child Deed Poll service, and everyone with parental responsibility for the child needs to agree.

The Deed Poll itself is £18.50, whether it is for an adult, a child or a replacement. Royal Mail delivery is chosen at the checkout and starts at £2.99, so a typical order is £23.49 (£18.50 plus £4.99 first class). Certified copies (from £6 for 2 up to £25 for 20) and a board-backed envelope (£1.99) are optional. There is nothing else to pay.

No. A Deed Poll does not have to be drafted or signed by a solicitor to be legally binding – GOV.UK says so. Our paralegals hand-draft every document, and we guarantee it will be accepted.

Yes. Anyone aged 16 or over may write their own unenrolled Deed Poll, sign it in front of two witnesses and begin using their new name; GOV.UK explains how and it costs nothing. The difficulty is that each organisation judges the document for itself, and GOV.UK notes that some may not accept a deed poll you have made yourself. If one of them refuses a home-made deed, there is no one to go back to. Our £18.50 buys wording our paralegals know is accepted, quality control, certificate paper, the guides and the cover letter, certified copies you cannot make yourself, and a full refund if it is ever refused.

HM Passport Office, the DVLA, HMRC, banks and building societies, employers, schools and universities, HM Land Registry, insurers and every other organisation that holds your records. If a Deed Poll we have drafted is ever refused, we refund you in full.

Every order is drafted, checked and dispatched the same working day. Royal Mail 1st Class usually arrives within one to three working days; Tracked (one to two working days), Tracked & Signed and International Tracked are available at the checkout.

Sign your Deed Poll in front of two independent adult witnesses, who then sign it too. It has a space for each, and we recommend using both. Each must be over 18, not related to you and not living at your address. The guide we send with every order walks you through it – see how to witness your Deed Poll.

No. There is nowhere a Deed Poll must be registered. Enrolling it at the Royal Courts of Justice is optional, costs £53.05 and does not make it more likely to be accepted. Our unenrolled Deed Polls are the standard way to change your name in the UK, and guaranteed to be accepted or your money back. More on enrolment.

Yes. Our replacement service (£18.50) drafts a new Deed Poll recording the change of name you have already made, with certified copies available for the organisations you still need to tell.