FAQ

Common law in the United Kingdom dictates that your legal name is simply the name that you are known by. This means that, in theory, somebody who is known by a particular name can consider that their legal name. There's no specific process requied: just start using the new name!

However: in practice, institutions in our modern world expect to see paperwork that backs up your assertion that your name has changed. That paperwork might be:

• a certificate of marriage or civil partnership, by which one partner adopts the surname of the other,
• a decree of divorce or dissolution, coupled with evidence of a name used prior to marriage or civil partnership, by which a person reverts to their pre-marital surname,
• a statutory declaration, typically sworn in front of a magistrate or solicitor, or
• a deed poll, a self-written statement of your name change, signed in the presence of witnesses.

This website provides help and support with producing a deed poll for free.

Sure: here's a 60-second video demonstration of they steps you'll need to take.

After you change your name, you're legally-required to notify organisations with whom you have a professional relationship. Here's a non-exhaustive list of people you'll need to contact.

Many of these organisations will require sight of your deed poll, and many will not accept a photocopy. For this reason, it's worthwhile to make multiple originals by printing out several copies of your deed poll and signing them all (with your witnesses) in a single sitting.

It's highly-recommended to get any photo ID, and especially government-issued photo ID like passports and driving licenses, updated early, because having these documents available can streamline the process of getting your name updated at other organisations such as your bank.

There are many reasons why you might want to change your name. Some common reasons include:

• To share a surname with a partner, child, or other family member
• To have a name that better reflects your cultural identity
• To formally make use of a nickname that you're already known by
• To make your name easier to pronounce or spell
• To represent a new start or a fresh beginning
• To assert your independence from your previous name and those you shared it with
• To avoid confusion with someone more-famous who shares your previous name
• To better reflect your gender identity, or to avoid being misgendered
• To add, remove, or re-arrange your middle name(s)
• To avoid discrimination based on your previous name
• To revert a name to its historical form
• To recognise someone important to you by adopting some or all of their name
• To adopt a name that is more-fitting to your religious beliefs
• To make day-to-day use of a stage name or pen name for which you've become known
• To have an unusual name that brings you amusement or joy
• To simply having a name that you prefer

It doesn't matter what your reason is, though: with few limitations (described elsewhere in this FAQ), you're legally entitled to change your name to whatever you want, for any reason you want.

British law imposes very few specific restrictions on what a person's name can be. However, laws that are not specifically-related to names can imply limitations on what names are allowable. If that sounds wooly... it's because it is!

What this means in practice is that the "rules" listed below are variably-enforced. If you choose to violate any of them with your deed poll, you can expect to have a harder time getting your name updated on ID and elsewhere. If you choose to violate several of them, you're likely to have a very difficult time. The rules are:

• You must have (at least) two full names.
• It must be possible to write your name using only the Latin alphabet. You can't use e.g. numbers, symbols, or characters from other alphabets. Hyphens and apostrophes are permitted for the purpose of e.g. double-barrelled names and names like O'Reilly.
• Your name must be pronounceable.
• Your name should not imply a title that you do not hold; for example, changing your first name to "Lord" or "Doctor" might be interpreted as an attempt to commit fraud.
• Your name may not promote crime, violence, or racial or religious hatred. It may not be knowingly offensive or blasphemous.
• If your name is extremely long or short, it may need to be shortened for use in some systems, which can include your passport and other forms of ID. Furthermore, very long names might not be printable on PDF versions of deeds poll generated by this site: in this case, you'll have to use the "text" version and format it into a document for yourself (e.g. using Microsoft Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice, or a similar tool).
• It is the policy of HM Passport Office to deny passport applications that they feel are for "temporary" names, names which contain a political message, and names which appear to infringe upon established trademarks, among other restrictions. With some effort, they can sometimes be persuaded to put your new name as an "also known as" on a passport that shows your old name.
• While it's fine to make your name the same as somebody else's, attempting to use it to pass yourself off as them or to cash-in on their accomplishments is likely to see you on the receiving end of legal action.

If you are 16 or 17 years old, you can use a regular adult deed poll, but when using it you may need to demonstrate that you have the consent of your parents to change your name. The easiest way to do this is for them to write and sign a letter that states what you're changing your name from and to, and that they approve of it. The letter should have the same date as your deed poll and you should keep them together.

The letter should be signed by everybody with parental responsibility for you; note that this is not always the same at custody and can even include a parent with whom you have no contact.

Yes, but the process is significantly more-complicated, with many potential pitfalls.

Right now, this website can't help you with this, but we've heard that some people have been successful in "simple" cases by adapting an adult deed poll as described here.

A crticial consideration is that you ensure that everybody with parental responsibility for the child is a signatory to the deed poll. This is important, because parental responsibility is different and distinct from custody or care.

Titles are not part of your name. They are a separate entity, and you do not - and probably should not, try to change them using a deed poll. We recoommend that you do not include your title on your deed poll at all.

A person may use any informal honorific (e.g. Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Mx, etc.) they like, regardless of their gender, age, or marital status. Simply inform organisations that you deal with what title you expect them to use for you, and they will generally comply. Sometimes organisations will ask for "proof" of a change of title, but this is a nonsense request because for informal titles there is nothing that could possibly be proof, because they are - after all - entirely a matter of personal preference.

Formal honorifics (e.g. Dr, Sir, Lady etc.) are also not part of your name and so do not belong on a deed poll. But they're also not something you're permitted to just start using: you need the relevant title or qualification. Changing your name to one that implies a title that you don't have (e.g. changing your first and middle names to "His Majesty") could land you in trouble: see the FAQ entry on legal restrictions for more information.

But in short: your title has nothing to do with your name, and you can use any informal honorific you like.

As a Common law system, what is and is-not legal in England and Wales is impacted by precedent: that is to say, previous cases that have been decided by the courts.

In a 1946 decision, Justice Harry Vaisey stated his opinion that a deed poll can not be used to change a person's first name. This precedent is generally ignored, but to allow for deeds poll that change a person's first name to be enrolled, should that be desired, such a deed poll will usually include a caveat to the effect of "Notwithstanding the decision of Mr Justice Vaisey in Re: Parrott, Cox v Parrott, the applicant desires the enrolment to proceed". This statement shows that the signatory is aware of the legal precedent and, like most people since Vaisey's decision, is choosing to treat it as invalid.

This site asks you to check a box if you've changed your first name in order to know whether or not to add this line to your deed poll. If you're certain that you will wish need to enroll your deed poll (which is something you'll probably never want to do), then it would be harmless to leave the box unchecked. Checking it (in the instance that you've changed your first name) merely keeps your legal options open.

If you're transitioning to a new gender and are adopting a new name as part of that transition, you can change your name by deed poll. You can do this either before or after applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), but please note that the name that appears on the GRC will be the name that you used at the time: in order words - if you want your GRC to include your new name, then you should make a deed poll before you apply for the GRC.

To successfully apply for a GRC, you need to (among other requirements) be able to demonstrate that you've been living as your affirmed gender for at least two years. Changing your name by deed poll can contribute to the evidence that you've been living as your affirmed gender.

If you're not a British citizen, this website can't help you. The rules in other countries are different, and often more-restrictive than in the UK.

If you have dual citizenship, or you're a British citizen with residence elsewhere, then you usually can use a deed poll generated by FreeDeedPoll.org.uk. In this instance, you can change your name in the UK first, and use this name change to get ID (including your British passport) updated with your new name. Then, you can use this name change as part of the evidence process in the other country of your citizenship or residence. Most countries will accept the names of citizens of other countries that accept those names.

The law on witnessing a document is not concretely-defined in modern times, but the general consensus is that your witnesseses must be:

• At least 18 years old.
• Not close family member (the aim is to demonstrate that it's not somebody who has a personal interest in what you're doing: a family member is usually fine, but worth avoiding if feasible).
• Physically present to see you sign the document, although it's been established that virtual witnessing over video calls is also valid (if they see you sign the document, and then you post it to them, for example).
• Mentally competent and capable of understanding the document they're signing.
• Not a convicted criminal with an outstanding sentence.

A good choice of witness is somebody who knows you personally, such as a friend, coworker, or neighbour. avoid anybody who could conceivably be accussed of being able to coerce you or be coerced by you: e.g. do not choose a coworker who manages you or who you manage, or a child who you are a parent to, for e.

Have your witnesses sign all of your original deeds poll in a single sitting.

Yes. Scottish law provides for a different process for changing your name, but Scottish institutions recognise deeds poll because Scots can be covered by the laws of England and Wales for certain purposes (those relating to non-devolved governmental functions). So while somebody born in Scotland may choose to go through the Scottish process, they don't have to (the author of this site is such a person, having been born in Scotland but who chose to change his name by deed poll).

There is a fee associated with changing your name via the Scottish process.

Note that Scottish law allows for the changing of a name on a birth certificate or adoption certificate, with certain limitations, which might be desirable for people born in Scotland who are changing their name.

Yes. Northern Ireland is governed by the laws of England and Wales, except where specifically devolved. A deed poll covered by the laws of England and Wales is sufficient to change your name in Northern Ireland.

Note that if you have dual Irish/British citizenship, you will probably find it easiest to change your name in the UK first, and then use this name change as part of the evidence process in the Republic of Ireland. More about dual citizenship...

No, you don't have to use this site to change your name. There are lots of other options.

Most sites will charge you a fee, in exchange for which they'll print your deed poll for you: they usually don't do much more than this, except perhaps provide a "money-back guarantee" if your deed poll is rejected by HM Passport Office or by the DVLA. This site is free and therefore doesn't need to offer a money-back guarantee!

But if you're prefer, here are some other options:

• Gov.uk has a guide to making an unenrolled deed poll for yourself.
• DeedPoll.lgbt provides a similar "serverless" service (and did so before this site did so), but only outputs HTML, not PDF files, but it's super-fast and simple.
• FreeDeedPoll.org is a loss-leader/front for a commercial deed poll service. It asks more questions than most free services, perhaps-unnecessarily.

Yes, but the deed poll you make won't be valid until it's signed by the person you're making it for. You can certainly make a deed poll as a gift for somebody, but it's up to them whether or not they accept it and want to use it.

If your child is 16 or 17, you can make a deed poll for them in the same way as you would for any other adult. Your child will need to be the one to sign it, and the deed poll will typically need to be accompanied by a letter signed by all of the child's parents in order to be accepted. See this FAQ entry for more information.

If your child is under 16, the situation is more-complicated. This website can't help you, but see this FAQ entry for some suggestions.

Any identical deeds poll you and your witnesses sign in a single sitting are considered to be originals of your deed poll. There can be just one original, but we highly recommend that you make multiple originals: at least two, and ideally three or more.

Any copies made subsequently (e.g. by photocopying an original) are considered to be copies. Copies are useful, but many organisations including the Passport Office, DVLA, and likely your bank, will require sight of an original.

If you only have one original, then you will need to send it to each organisation individually and then wait for it to be returned before you can send it to the next one. With muliple originals, you can share an original with multiple organisations at the same time, which will speed up the process of getting your name updated. Furthermore, having multiple originals is good insurance against their accidental loss or destruction: you can keep one original in a safe place while the others are taken on tour of organisations to whom you need to prove your name change.

For extra safety, save a copy of the PDF file you generated to somewhere safe: e.g. email it to yourself using an email address you expect to keep for the rest of your life. This way, you're well-equipped to easily re-sign it as a backdated deed poll should the need arise, even if this website ceases to exist.

Consider signing your originals in blue ink, to make them easier to distinguish from any black-and-white copies you make.

Sometimes, an organisation may reject your deed poll; this is more-likely if your new name violates or appears to violate the organisation's interpretation of the legal restrictions on names, and it's marginally more-likely with deeds poll that are perceived as being "home-made". Some organisations will insist upon seeing an "official" deed poll (even though there is, of course, no such thing).

This is annoying, but it can be resolved with a little effort and patience. We've put together a special guide to handling organisations that reject your change of name.

Some people opt to enrol their deed poll with the Royal Courts of Justice in London. This is a slow and expensive process and is absolutely not required for the vast majority of people.

Enrolling your deed poll makes it a matter of public record. An enrolled deed poll is marginally less-likely to be rejected by organisations (but you can work around that anyway), but there's no other benefit to most people.

In short: no, you do not need to enrol your deed poll. An unenrolled deed poll is perfectly good.

If for some reason you really want to enrol your deed poll, gov.uk has guidance.

Ideally, don't! That's why you made multiple originals, right?

But if you do lose your deed poll and still need it (after a long while, you'll probably find that you don't use it any more), then you can create a new original by creating a backdated one. If possible, use the same witnesses as the original.

When creating your deed poll using this site, you can put any date on it that you like.

Putting a date in the future can be useful if, for example, you plan to print it today but then sign it next week, when you'll see your witnesses.

Putting a date in the past is acceptable so long as it's not being done for fraudulent purposes. For example, if you've already changed your name and are recreating a replica original using the same witnesses, that's probably fine. But if you're using a deed poll to try to claim that you've been going by your new name for longer than is actually the case, that could be illegal.

Absolutely. There are all kinds of reasons you might like to write out your own deed poll: you might like to write it by hand using ornate caligraphy to make the resulting document a memorable keepsake, or you might prefer to format it in your preferred choice of font.

This website can still help you come up with the wording you need. Just fill out the form as usual and click the "Show Text" button. You'll see the full wording of your deed poll, which you can copy-and-paste into your favourite word processor, copy out by hand, type on a typewriter, or whatever.

Note that you will still need to ensure that the paper you use has straight edges, and you should still consider having multiple originals even if you're hand-writing them.

Yes, completely. You don't have to pay anything to use this site. It's not trying to sell you anything. It doesn't even host any advertisements! It doesn't track you. It doesn't sell your data to third parties. It's genuinely completely free.

If you find that the site is valuable to you and you'd like to give something back, you're welcome to donate to any of the following charities, of which the site's creator is a fan:

• Samaritans - if possible, please consider donating to your local branch rather than the national charity: local branches are often independent charities in their own right and often run on showstring budgets backed by incredible volunteer effort. As a former volunteer myself I've seen first hand the enormous impact that a listening ear can provide to people in crisis.
• Mermaids - trans youth are becoming increasingly disenfranchised and undersupported in the UK, and Mermaids not only fights to gain and reclaim their rights but also provides support to trans kids and their families right now.
• The Internet Archive - during a period in 2025 when a server failure took this site offline, I was able to point users to the Wayback Machine's snapshot of key pages. In an increasingly-ephemeral Internet, this service supports the preservation of the Web for future historians.

Absolutely. I've personally spoken to many hundreds of people who've successfully changed their name using this site, and I'm aware via social media that it's been used by orders of magnitude more.

Nowadays, gov.uk confirms the legitimacy of homemade deeds poll (although it didn't used to, when this site was launched!), and even provides some sample text that you can use. This site only does the same thing, but makes it easier to produce an attractive document and provides help and advice on how to use it.

Yes. The deed poll generator on this site runs entirely in your browser: nothing - not your name or anything else - gets sent across the Internet to our server. This is different to virtually every other deeds poll service we've ever seen. So as well as being free, this site also respects your privacy.

But you don't have to take our word for it. The technology that powers this site is released under an open source license, which means that you or anybody else can inspect the code and verify that it's safe and secure. It also means that you can run a copy of your own, if you like!

This question is impossible to answer, because this site does not, and has never, tracked the people who use it! From 2011 through 2025 this site generated documents "server-side", which could theoretically have been used to count the number of users, but the server was always deliberately configured to discard all such logs as an affordance to privacy. Since 2025, this site has generated documents "client-side" - this means that all of the document generation happens on your own computer - so it's now completely impossible to count the number of people who've benefitted from it.

However, based solely on the number of people who have specifically taken the time to email me or speak publicly about their experience of using the site, there are definintely in the thousands and and almost certainly in the tens, maybe even hundreds, of thousadnds of people who've benefitted from this fast, free and easy way to change their name.

The entire source code for this site is available on GitHub.

The site is implemented in 11ty (pronounced "eleventy"), a static site generator that produces a collection of basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. All of this code runs directly in your computer's web browser, so nothing runs on our server.

PicoCSS is used to bootstrap the design, and jsPDF generates the PDF files.

Yes. Feel free to raise an issue on GitHub or make a pull request with your own suggested changes.

Alternatively, send an email to dan@freedeedpoll.org.uk and I'll see if I can help.

In order to lay out the contents of your deed poll in a consistent manner, this website makes a few assumptions about the size of its contents. In some cases - for example for people with extremely long names or addresses - this can result in some of the content being "cut off" the end of the page in the PDF version.

If this happens, the PDF version of your deed poll is not suitable for use. Instead, you'll need to use the text version to create your own.

Earlier versions of this website worked without JavaScript, by generating deeds poll documents on the server. In order to better protect your privacy, the current version of the site instead generates the document directly in your web browser: your personal information never leaves your computer.

The technology that powers this site should work in any modern web browser. If you're having trouble, you might like to try a different browser or computer.

Surprisingly, the plural of deed poll is deeds poll, in the same way that the plural of secretary general is secretaries general.

A deed poll is a legal document signed on behalf of a single party. The popularity of a specific kind of deed poll - one to change your name! - has lead to the name deed poll becoming synonymous with that specific kind of document.

In this context, a deed is a document that declares or affirms a fact. It descends from the medieval tradition of a charter. Deeds are used for various purposes, such as transferring ownership of property or granting a patent.

Polling in this context refers to cutting the paper so that it has straight edges! This differentiates polls fromindentures, which were contracts written out in triplicate and torn into three parts, with each of the two parties holding one part each and the third being kept with a trusted authority. This mitigated the risk of the forgery of one part of the contract: a fake part would not match up with the others.

Changing your own name by declaring it in a document never required multiple signatories, and so has never been a kind of indenture but a poll. And so, by descent from medieval tradition, the name "deed poll" suggests that the paper on which your deed poll is written is expected to have straight edges! One of many strange examples of how medieval law continues to shape our modern legal system.

Most of the big "paid-for" deeds poll websites (which do fundamentally the same thing as this one, but with glossier branding and a price tag to come with it) maintain a journalist-attracting page with a list of curious and intesting names that people using their site have changed their name to.

This site does not do that. We don't - in fact, we can't - track you, and we have no record of what names people enter onto the site. So while we don't have some headline-grabbing and hilarious list of funny and unusual names... we think that's actually a good thing. We take your privacy seriously, and - even if you choose a truly brilliant name - we won't be the ones to tell the world about it. That's up to you. It's your name, after all!

This site was created by Dan Q: yes, his real, full name is just "Dan Q", which makes filling out forms relatively quick (only four letters!)... except when a computer system rejects his surname for being too short (which happens more than he'd like, because programmers sometimes have a blind spot for the diversity of human names).

He's been using this name since he changed it by deed poll in 2007. Since then, he's blogged extensively about having this unusual name. He's also been featured in The Guardian talking about deeds poll and name changes.

Other projects of Dan's include:

• DanQ.me, his long-running blog.
• Three Rings, a voluntary organisation producing software that supports the work of hundreds of charities including Samaritans, NSPCC's Childline, University Nightlines, and huge number of community shops, volunteer-run libraries, and other groups.
• Change Your Star Sign, a silly spin-off of this site that helps you generate a certificate that proclaims that you now have a different star sign. Unlike deeds poll, there's no underlying legal basis for changing your star sign, but given that astrology has no scientific basis, it's a fun way to make a joke of it.
• Many other things, some of which are listed among "Dan Q's Things".