Name Change
SOLICITORS FOR NAME CHANGE – WATFORD SOLICITORS
If you are over the age of 16, you can choose to call yourself whatever you want. There is no formal procedure involved and no legal implications of deciding to call yourself a name different to the one on your birth certificate, unless you do so for criminal gain.
However, for the purposes of preventing fraud and to make sure you are fully and legally accountable, some organisations, such as your bank, may not accept that you have changed your name unless you can provide them with evidence in writing.
Let’s have a look at some possible scenarios and how you might go about changing your name and proving it.
Marriage and divorce
If you are getting married or divorced and you decide to change your name (it is not a legal requirement to change your name upon marriage), the documents you have from these events, as well as your birth certificate, will usually be enough evidence for most organisations. Acceptable documents include marriage and civil partnership certificates, decree absolute and dissolution of civil partnership certificates.
Statutory declarations
Perhaps you are not getting married or divorced and want to change your name for other reasons. You can opt to change your name using a statutory declaration, which is a special document that is sworn under oath in the presence of a magistrate or solicitor. For the declaration to be legally valid, it must contain certain phrases, which is something you can discuss with your solicitor. Although most organisations will accept statutory declarations, you should clarify this with them first.
Deed polls
The other alternative is to change your name via a deed poll. Like a will, the deed will have to be signed in front of two witnesses, who are both mentally capable of understanding the consequences of acting as a witness. The names, addresses and occupations of the witnesses must also be recorded.
Like statutory declarations, the deed must be structured in a certain way in order to be legally valid. You can opt to go one step further and for a fixed fee, you can have the deed registered with the Central Office of the Supreme Court, which will create a public record of your name change.
Changing a child’s name
Changing a child’s name is a little bit more complicated. If your child is under 16, you can use a deed poll so long as everyone with parental responsibility consents to the name change. If your child is over 16, they will have to use the same procedures applicable to adults. The biological parents of the child, if they are married, usually have an automatic right to parental responsibility when the child is born. However, through agreements, step-parents, and indeed relatives can gain parental responsibility. If the parents are not married, the mother will automatically gain parental responsibility upon the birth of the child, although the father can if he is on the birth certificate as the father of the child.
If you have properly established who has parental responsibility, their consent to the child’s change of name must be properly evidenced in writing. If, however, only one person has parental responsibility, formal consent will not be required. Within the document there will be a disclaimer which you can sign to say that only you have parental responsibility for the child and no one else has to consent to the name change.