If you wanted to change your name Legally what do you ask about?

In the UK it is called a Deed poll www.ukdps.co.uk/WhatIsADeedPoll.html (A legal certificate) Images here
Yet there is no name elsewhere for this Process
Have you any Pointers for us?

Here, we just apply to our Department of Vital Statistics, fill out a form, pay a fee, and wait.

The department wants a birth certificate or immigration documents and will do a criminal records check, and your fingerprints, taken by the police, must also be submitted. The applicant must be nineteen years of age or older; if underage, the parents or guardians must apply.

When it's processed and registered, you apply for a certificate (not a deed poll). That's it.
Here is the certificate of Elly May Jeffrey, who changed her name from Minny May Monts.

Bedstor:The Deed Poll per se is a waste of money. It has no legal effect in itself whatsoever. If it did anyone could make a 'deed poll' in any name whatsoever and claim that as their 'legal' name.

Under English law your name is whatever name you are known by. If I think to call myself Jim Smith rather than Fred Puli but the world at large continues to call me Fred Puli and not Jim Smith, then in law I'm still Fred Puli and not Jim Smith. I could have a hundred deed polls or 'deeds of change of name' made for the name Jim Smith but they'd make no difference to that position.

The only effect of a deed stating that you wish hereafter to be known by a different name than the one previously used is that it records your wish and so is some evidence of your settled intention to abandon one name in favour of another one. But if the world doesn't go along with your wish to be called, say, 'Hieronymus Volestrangler von Metternich Easy on the Mustard' then you'll still have the name by which you are now known, deed or none.

I've suspected that for a long time with social security fraudsters going in one office saing they are who they say they are then going into the Next towns saying they are Joe bloggs and the people believe it

And remember they only Have to put their "Mark" on a Piece of paper to validate it so they can claim they are illiterate...or cannot read English or the old "Me no speak English" Routines They are away before an Interpreter is found
And "loosing" National insurance numbers(social security Numbers)Has become an art form the Office finds No record (convienient) then Issues an emergency number...Same goes for Income Tax (more common) wave that code around get Ok a lesser return but Hey Its (free) Money The Gangs collect several thousand a day including emergency Grants "They claim they are that desperate! NOT!

And all because they "changed" their name

PS Do you believe I could get away with Mike Bedstor as an alias?

Here in Canada it is not illegal to assume any name you wish so long as it is not for fraudulent purposes.

At one time I went by one or more of several different names
1. Birth certificate name
2. Marriage licence name also social insurance # name
3. Passport name
4. Second marriage licence name ver.1 (first name as on birth cert.)
5. Second marriage lic. name ver. 2 (first name as on 1st marriage licence).
6. Current name as on passport #2


And I never got in trouble or used it to defraud anyone. It was always the simplest way to solve a problem.

You see, my mother and dad couldn't agree whether to call me Mildred (mother's choice) or dad's choice ... oh, never mind. Every step was at the time the easiest way to solve some beaurocratic plight. The downward path...

If I remember correctly, in the US, whatever name you use becomes your legal name, with some restrictions. You can, of course, go to a courthouse and change it, but I don't think it is necessary.


Catty, I've gone by a few names, too. Some are even close to my real name.

I dont agree with a previous post the a deed poll is a waste of time.
I tried to change my name on my passport and with the DVLA with my own written "deed poll" They would not accept it bacause of the wording.

So I got a deed poll through a company whose business is making such changes legal. They only charge £13.99 which is way cheaper than the uk deed poll service.

I would recommend them to anyone who wants to change their name.

And to add their deed poll was accepted by the DVLA and Passport office

Edited to remove ad.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,

Oliver,the important words are to the effect that you irrevocably declare that you are to be known by the name of [whatever] for all purposes henceforth The DVLA accepted the form you used because that was, itself, evidence that you were serious and it contained the right words about your intention.

Unfortunately, if nobody else calls you by the name given on your licence but only by that which you are already known by them, in law, that original name is still your name.That's the name 'the world' (meaning people who know you personally and in your private life) knows you by so that's your legal name. It doesn't matter what some clerk in the DVLA has done.Of course, in practice the likelihood is that now people call you by the name you gave the DVLA, in which case there's no problem and won't be.

Tom Jones, the singer,is legally Sir Thomas Woodward. He's never been known to his friends as Tom Jones.Only if he'd renounced the name Woodward and they then called him Tom Jones would he be Tom Jones in law.