free name change template deed - How to change your name
89In this Hub i will tell you exactlly what you have to do to change your name for free. It is perfectly legal and very simple to do. I have provided a template of a name change deed below.
Lawyers charge people to change their name at a ridiculous rate. They fool us into thinking that it must be done through a Lawyer, and then they attach a fee that we feel we HAVE to pay.
It is a well kept secret, that ANYBODY, can in fact, change their name at any time they wish and not have to pay huge fee’s for the privilege. All it will cost you is the price of a few stamps.
People use Lawyer’s to change names for any number of reasons, they could be getting married or divorced, adopting a child, Changing religion or even just because they don’t like their current name. But my point is, 99.9% of people do this via a solicitors firm.
In this Hub I am going to tell you exactly what you have to do to change your name yourself. Don’t worry, it is actually really easy and can be done in no time at all.
When someone is born, the parents have to go and register the birth into the public records. When this is done, the registrar issues a birth certificate which is a document that proves the day you were born, the name (title) you have been given, the location of the birth and the names, address and employment details of the parents. It is against the law not to register a child. The name on that birth certificate is your title; it is what people will call you by. We are allowed to change our names but this must be done in the right way. When somebody changes their name, they have to sign a deed that declares they will be abandoning their old name and adopting a new one. The person changing their name is swearing an oath that from the day forward of signing the deed, they will longer respond or declare themselves by their previous name.
All that is involved in changing your name correctly and legally is to follow the rules of a deed i.e it must be signed by the person changing their name and by a witness that is not related to the person.
The reason name changes are usually done through Lawyers is because a deed is considered a legal document. It is also a legal document that must be worded correctly for it to be valid.
After the deed has been written and signed, the new name is now your name by Law. Now you have to abide by the deed and as you declared you will no longer be known by your previous name, you have to inform everyone in your dealings of your new name. You will have to tell your bank, your tax office, your employer and anybody else you have some sort of relationship or contact with. This is quite easy to do. You simply write a cover letter and send it to everyone along with a copy of the deed. Because the deed is a legally binding document, everybody you inform about your new name has to accept it. You will get new bank cards through with your new name, a new driving licence, the names on your household bills will need to be changed. This process may take some time but eventually, all correspondence you receive will have your new name on it.
So back to the deed. How do you write a legally binding deed by yourself? This is the easy part. All you do is use a template. Any deed for a name change that has been written before will be worded in the same way. You just change the names in the deed to your old and new names and that is really it. So long as you were witnessed by an unrelated person signing the deed it is a legally binding document.
Steps to take:
- Choose your new name
- Plan the day you want to change it
- (this could be quite important because as an example, you don’t want your passport to have a different name to the tickets for your vacation, this could cause problems)
- Arrange for a non-relation to witness you signing the deed.
- The witness signs and dates the deed
- You have your new name so now you have to tell everyone you have any dealings with.
Here is an example of a deed. You can use the words in this template to change your name. So long as you follow the steps above, you have legally changed your name for free.
If you enjoy Law
Name change deed Template
You have to follow the wording in this template word for word because any mistakes could render this document void.
####### START OF DEED TEMPLATE ########
CHANGE OF NAME DEED
DATE: ...........................
BY THIS DEED I the undersigned NEW NAME now lately called OLD NAME do hereby:-
1. For and on behalf of myself wholly renounce relinquish and abandon the use of my former name OLD NAME and in place thereof do assume from the date hereof the name of NEW NAME and so that i may hereafter be called, known and distinguished not by my former name of OLD NAME but by my assumed name of NEW NAME.
2. For the purpose of evidence such my determination declare that I shall at all times hereafter in all records, deeds and writings and in all proceedings and transactions as well as private and public and upon all occasions whatsoever use and sign the name of NEW NAME as my name in place of and in substitution of my former name of OLD NAME.
3. I expressly authorise and request all persons at all times hereafter to designate and address me by such assumed name of NEW NAME.
IN WITNESS whereof I have hereunto subscribed my former and adopted names of OLD NAME and NEW NAME THIS Tenth day of July One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Eight.
SIGNED AS DEED BY
NEW NAME.........................................................
Formerly known as
OLD NAME......................................................
In the presence and witnessed by:
WITNESS NAME
DATE
SIGNED
######## END OF DEED TEMPLATE ######
Simply fill in your new name in the ‘NEW NAME’ space and your old name in the ‘OLD NAME’ space.
NOTE: Although its not absolutely necessary, I would advise you to format this template yourself using a tool such as Microsoft Word. This template only gives the correct wording to use for your deed but with a few styling tweaks here and there, you could easily make this deed look very professional. But as I said, its not absolutely necessary because even if you just copy and paste the template and keep it looking exactly the same, nobody is going to question it's authenticity.
CommentsLoading...
@harjit
Hiya.
For a child the above template would be exactly the same except for the part at the bottom where the person has to sign their old and new name. Instead of this, for a child, the deed will need a parents signiture and of course, a witnessed signiture.
I have used this deed template twice in the past and everywhere accepts it as a legal document. Places such as, Customes & Exports for passports, Department of Works and pensions for national insurance, DVLA for driving licence and all major high street banks etc.
As an adult, you would have records at all the above organisations and government departments so it's just a matter of them updating your personal info. However, as a child, it is possible that no records have been created yet so it might be wiser to change a childs name via deed poll through a solicitor because then the childs public records will be updated. As an adult following this article, your name change is not registered with the public records office automatically so if this is important to you, you can send a copy of the deed yourself to make sure your records are updated. Personally, I've never done this because it's not neccessary so long as you send the deed to EVERYWHERE who you have an account and every government department you have dealings with.
Personally, I would say that I childs name change should eally be done via a solicitor because the public records will be updated which is the most impotant thing for a child because they haven't got personal records anywhere else that can be updated using this tutorial. Also, when this child grows up, they might want an offically stamped deed to have an offical record of their identity. I would if my parents changed my name!
what about dmv?
Where do you send the deed? And what about DMV? Do u need your birth certificate and will they honor it with name change ?
@Jill Meisenheimer
@Stephanie Jennings
Hi,
By asking about the DMV I assume your either in the US or another country and not in the UK. The above article is written with the UK in mind so I can't really comment on other country's as I don't know for sure if the laws are the same. I pretty sure you can still use the same deed as a template because thats written in legalese which is universal.
I would say however, theres no harm in trying to see if it works. If you want to change your name, fill in the form/template correctly and send a COPY of the deed (after it has been signed and witnessed) to EVERY organisation you have any dealings or connection with. This could be government agencies like the DMV or your bank or the company you pay your electricty bill too, it MUST be sent to EVERYONE. After you have done this, you will be breaking the law if you ever use your old name again in an official capacity. This is because, in the deed you have clearly sworn you will never do so.
The whole process is actually very straigt forward, its simply making a promise on a piece of paper, getting someone to witness that promise, then telling everyone you have contact or business with in an official capacity about that promise, and thats it! Easy.
In the UK, our DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) is called the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) when I changed my name with one of these deeds, I sent a copy of the deed, my original birth certificate and my old driving licence along with a new licence application form that already had a section for name change ammendments. It took only a couple of weeks and my new licence arrived with my new name and there wasn't any complications at all.
Yes, I forgot to mention that. When you send out copies of the deed to everyone, some places may require you to also send them proof of your old name. This is just to firmly establish you are the same person your claiming to be. Government agencies are more inclind to require your original birth certificate so you may have to do one gov agency at a time while you wait for the certificate to be returned to you. I also recommend a cover letter explaining what your doing just to avoid any confusion. This is helpful if you send the deed to the wrong place because they will clearly know what you want and they should advise you accordingly.
Hope this helps :-)
As an adult, you would have records at all the above organisations and government departments so it's just a matter of them updating your personal info. However, as a child, it is possible that no records have been created yet so it might be wiser to change a childs name via deed poll through a solicitor because then the childs public records will be updated. As an adult following this article, your name change is not registered with the public records office automatically so if this is important to you, you can send a copy of the deed yourself to make sure your records are updated. Personally, I've never done this because it's not neccessary so long as you send the deed to EVERYWHERE who you have an account and every government department you have dealings with.
Personally, I would say that I childs name change should eally be done via a solicitor because the public records will be updated which is the most impotant thing for a child because they haven't got personal records anywhere else that can be updated using this tutorial. Also, when this child grows up, they might want an offically stamped deed to have an offical record of their identity. I would if my parents changed my name!
Stephanie Jennings 2 months ago
what about dmv?
Jill Meisenheimer 3 weeks ago
Where do you send the deed? And what about DMV? Do u need your birth certificate and will they honor it with name change ?
SITE HERO 3 weeks ago
@Jill Meisenheimer
@Stephanie Jennings
Hi,
By asking about the DMV I assume your either in the US or another country and not in the UK. The above article is written with the UK in mind so I can't really comment on other country's as I don't know for sure if the laws are the same. I pretty sure you can still use the same deed as a template because thats written in legalese which is universal.
I would say however, theres no harm in trying to see if it works. If you want to change your name, fill in the form/template correctly and send a COPY of the deed (after it has been signed and witnessed) to EVERY organisation you have any dealings or connection with. This could be government agencies like the DMV or your bank or the company you pay your electricty bill too, it MUST be sent to EVERYONE. After you have done this, you will be breaking the law if you ever use your old name again in an official capacity. This is because, in the deed you have clearly sworn you will never do so.
The whole process is actually very straigt forward, its simply making a promise on a piece of paper, getting someone to witness that promise, then telling everyone you have contact or business with in an official capacity about that promise, and thats it! Easy.
In the UK, our DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) is called the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) when I changed my name with one of these deeds, I sent a copy of the deed, my original birth certificate and my old driving licence along with a new licence application form that already had a section for name change ammendments. It took only a couple of weeks and my new licence arrived with my new name and there wasn't any complications at all.
Yes, I forgot to mention that. When you send out copies of the deed to everyone, some places may require you to also send them proof of your old name. This is just to firmly establish you are the same person your claiming to be. Government agencies are more inclind to require your original birth certificate so you may have to do one gov agency at a time while you wait for the certificate to be returned to you. I also recommend a cover letter explaining what your doing just to avoid any confusion. This is helpful if you send the deed to the wrong place because they will clearly know what you want and they should advise you accordingly.
Hope this helps :-)
nice one , thanks for this
If I was to change my name In this way in order for my unborn child to be named after his father (his father isn't able to be there at the registration of the birth) will this be evidence enough that this is now my new name or will I need a deed poll etc... To prove this?
Thankyou
Hi Becky, This should be enough ID so long as you also take along something with your old name. Basically, your showing registrar that you've JUST recently changed your name and there is nothing wrong with that. TBH, I'm not sure what its like in your country but I'm pretty sure you can CHOOSE which surname to give your child without having to show any ID. You just say the Father is away at the moment and that should be ok. As they say, honesty is always the best policy. You shouldn't need to change your name for this, not until you get married anyway.
Good luck
Thanks for this! You saved me £100 solicitors fees! :-)
Anything on Wills next?
FYI - typo in paragraph one, you've forgotten to capitalise the personal pronoun:
NEW NAME and so that *i* may hereafter be called
(and there's a whole load of extra bolds and things it would be nice to tidy up - but compared to the hassle of a solicitor, that's small fry - thanks!)
Thanks Phil, I missed that.
I agree, I could make it look a whole lot better so when I have the time I will style the template properly. My main concern is that people understand it and I think they do.
Yes, solicitors are criminal for charging so much for something so simple.
I would like to change my name but is this applicable in all countries or nationalities?Please i need help the lawyers cost a lot and i don't have that much money to do so.i have to change to my Middle and Family Name(surname) in order to get the marriage or fiance visa.Thank you very much.I would really appreciate your respond.
Hi Angela,
To answer your question, I'm afraid I honestly don't know. I do know that this template works in the UK and the US, possibly even throughout Europe but beyond that I can't say for sure. What I can say is you don't have to pay expensive lawyer fees no matter where you are.
The template I've included above was copied from a name change deed that was provided by an official source. The key is the wording and the information... once you have the correct wording and information, you longer need to go through a lawyer because you now have the language needed to form a lawfully binding deed. My advice to you would be to locate someone else's name change deed from your country and then just use that as your template, basically, just edit all the names and dates for yourself. Don't worry about any official looking crests or seals on the deed because these don't matter. A deed can be a plain piece of paper with just the text added with Microsoft word, it could even be hand-written if you want. The only thing that defines an OFFICIAL deed is the promise being made in the text and it has to be signed and witnessed. So long as the promise is signed and witnessed (with a witness signature), its a deed.
If you search online you should be able to find a copy of someones deed from your country which you can then use to write your own. Also, as I've mentioned earlier, your name change takes affect when you send a copy of the deed to all the official bodies you deal with in your country. This will be different in different countries so I can't really advise you on who to send it too but I'm sure you will know. It'll have to go to your local and national government or council, your driving license agency, your bank, all your creditors, and any other official body who you have dealings with. You could also send it to the organization who deals with births, deaths, and marriages in your country. Oh and not forgetting your employer too and any company who provides utilities such as water, gas, electric, internet, and telephone.
Hope this helps. If you have any further questions please feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help you.
can i use this template as a legal replacement copy as i changed my name in 1997 & after separating from my husband over 2 years ago no longer have my original name deed due to a non compliant ex saying he cannot find it..i have rang the solicitor who did the deed only to be told they only hold change of name deeds for a total of 6 years..i need it to apply for a first passport and would the passport office accept it? also if i can use it would i have to put the original date of 1997 or put present date? i am in the uk..
My mother remarried when I was 6yrs old and since then Ive been known in my step-fathers name but it was never changed officially. Im now 45yrs old and I want to go back to my birth name. The changing of name seems simple enough, but how do I explain (to National Insurance in particular) my change of name when Im providing proof as my birth certificate is in the name I want to change to?...Im in the UK...hope you can help.
Will this change the name on my birth certificate if I request that?
thank you for that information that was very helpful
harjit 21 months ago
what about for a child - what do you add?