Hi There,

Yo get an official certified copy of your Deed Poll you will need to get the original Signed Deed Poll to be copied and certified by a professional such as a solicitor. The Deed Poll copy would be certified as “A TRUE COPY OF THE ORIGINAL”.

This ertified copy should then be acceepted by various authorities as evidencing the execution of the original Deed Poll.

I hope this is helpful and please do contact our London Notary Public Office should you have any further questions about excution of Deed Polls.

Thanks for making this simple template available. One question, the ‘official certified copy’ – can that be a photocopy of your original or can you sign, say if you needed six, six originals, each signd by the witness to be sent out to officials – Is this what is considered a ‘copy’.

Would be grateful for your opinion, I plan to change my name in May 2014.

Thank-you

Avalina

Just a quick question. The person acting as a witness can this be anyone of my choosing or are there any restrictions?
I understand that having someone who is not related would be a good idea however outside that can I ask anyone for example (employer, friend, person of upstanding in the company) or would it be best to ask a lawyer etc to witness the signing.

Thank you.

How will I get ‘an official certified copy ‘ of my deed poll ? Can I sign multiple copies of deed poll and ask witness to sign on each one to have some spare copy.

I will appreciate if you can advise.

Thanks

I would really appreciate it if you could reply to my last query which i have copied and pasted for u below. I would be very grateful

Hi Matthew,

Thank you so much for your reply.

The child is 2 years old and both parents (biological parents both with parental responsibility) are named on the birth certificate. We wish to change childs first name as we no longer like her current name and have had a chnage of heart.

I would be grateful if you could let me know how We would use te template you have provided above and how & where it needs to be amended?

You can either reply here or on the email i have provided.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

SF

Thank you so much for your reply.

The child is 2 years old and both parents (biological parents both with parental responsibility) are named on the birth certificate. We wish to change childs first name as we no longer like her current name and have had a chnage of heart.

I would be grateful if you could let me know how We would use te template you have provided above and how & where it needs to be amended?

You can either reply here or on the email i have provided.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

SF

Hi There,

Thank you for getting in touch and seeking clarification as to the use of this name change template. In circumstances that relate to a child I would always advise seeking independent professional advice. This Notary public website is provided free to members of the public but is not a substitute for advice from advisors who are familiar with the particular facts and circumstances of your child. Please ensure that any name change is not undertaken lightly or without a committment to use the Deed Poll as a means to change a name entirely moving forward.

I understand you wish to use the free deed poll form to change your child’s name and therefore it is important to determine the reason. This is why I suggest seeking the advice of a professional who is aware of your circumstances. If this name change is on the basis of an adoption then I have provided more information below. If this is not the case then please do contact our Notary public website with the specific reasons behind the name change and I will be more than happy to provide further clarification as to drafting requirements for the Deed Poll.

A child who has been formally adopted via a government department scheme does not need a Deed Poll to change their surname. This is because the adoption certificate issued (replacing the original birth certificate) provides the necessary documentary evidence that the child’s surname has changed to that of the adopted family’s surname. This is the evidence that you need to provide to the authorities to confirm the change of name. Once you have supplied this adoption certificate to the authorities all of the government departments, companies and organisations will take this as sufficient evidence and should update their records to use only the new family.

If the parents who adopt the child wish to change their adopted child’s first names (or family name), they can do so by Deed Poll. The deed poll needs to be carefully drafted and also in these circumstances the formal written consent is required of anyone named as a parent on the adoption certificate.

I trust this provides you with some additional information and please do get in touch should you require further clarification as to how to draft and execute a deed poll name change documents.

Matthew – Notary Public based in Mayfair, London

I have the same question as many of the others which hasn’t been answered on this page yet.

Can this template be used to change the name of a child under 16 by someone with parental responsibilty???

I look forward to your response as soon as possible.

Regards,

SF

Thank you for the email and for getting in touch to share your experience of changing your name by Deed Poll and then contacting the Identity and Passport Service to ensure a Passport Name change to reflect your newly adopted name. As you would expect I cannot comment on this specific instance because I do not know the specific reasons that the IPS chose to contact you. Whilst you indicate that there are various issues, of which I have no knowledge, that “flagged it up” for the Passport authorities I understand that it is not unusual for the Identity and Passport Services to contact indivudals who seek to change the name on their passport by Deed Poll. There is some useful information on this government website about the information required to change your name and personal details on your passport https://www.gov.uk/changing-passport-information

Whilst I cannot comment on your particular circumstances I can confirm that when you change your name by Deed Poll you are making a committment to take up and use your adopted name to the exclusion of your previous name. Therefore once a Name Change document has been signed it is expected that you would then update the various authorities who would need to have “evidence” of this name change by reviewing a copy of the signed Deed Poll. These authorities, who would want to see a copy of the Deed Poll (or sometimes the original or a notarised copy) would include the DVLA, HMRC, Identity and Passport Services, your bank, your doctor etc. Therefore whilst you may have been understandably surprised about the questions asked of you I would suggest that the authorities are only making reasonable enquiries to determine that the Deed Poll is used to change your name and evidence this change after the individual has signed the Deed Poll.

Therefore if you have signed the deed poll you must be committed to changing your name. Therefore if this is the case, do not be put off, rather use the deed poll to evidence to all of the authorities, including the Identity and Passport Services that you have changed your name. These authorities may ask further questions and these may be targetted towards understanding that the name change has been adopted entirely throughout your life.

I hope this helps and if you have any other questions about the deed poll name change document or dealing with authorities to update them with your new name then please do not hesitate to get in touch.