Can I go back to my birth name after adoption?

Can I change my name back to my birth name after adoption?#

Yes. An adopted adult changes their name in the same way as anyone else, by deed poll. GOV.UK says anyone aged 16 or over can make one and start using a new name, and that you can change any part of your name, or add and remove names. So you can take your birth surname, a first name from your original birth registration, or both, and you can keep your adoptive name alongside, as a middle name or as part of a double-barrelled surname, if that feels right. Nobody has to agree, neither your adoptive family nor your birth family, and the deed records no reason.

You sign the deed in the name you use now and in the birth name you are taking, in front of witnesses. HM Passport Office tells its staff to accept a deed poll signed in both names, witnessed by at least one person, in wet ink and dated. Ours is £18.50, with space for two witnesses, and is posted the same working day.

What is the adoption certificate, and what happens to it?#

When an adoption order is made in England or Wales, the child is entered in the Adopted Children Register and the original birth entry is marked "Adopted", under Schedule 1 to the Adoption and Children Act 2002. The General Register Office's note for adoptive parents explains that the adoption certificate is a new birth certificate in the adoptive name, which "replaces the original birth certificate for all legal purposes". The short version is headed Certificate of Birth and does not mention the adoption; the full version copies the register entry. Copies come only from the General Register Office, at £12.50.

That certificate stays your birth record after a deed poll. HM Passport Office's guidance names the adoption certificate, as it does a birth certificate, as proof of the name a person starts life with, and its adoption guidance asks for the full adoption certificate with a passport application. The register entry's prescribed form records the child's name and the adoptive parents, with no place for a birth name, and the connection between your two entries is kept by the Registrar General and is not open to public inspection. So neither certificate links your adoptive name to your birth name. The deed poll does that.

A deed poll changes your name and nothing else. Section 67 of the 2002 Act treats an adopted person in law as if born as the child of the adopters, and a change of name leaves that as it is.

Can the certificate show my birth name?#

In England and Wales, no. The 2002 Act lets the court that made an adoption order add a new name to the register entry only if the name was given or taken within a year of the order, so after a deed poll you show the adoption certificate together with the deed.

Scotland and Northern Ireland can record the change. National Records of Scotland updates a Scottish birth or adoption certificate, so that new copies show your new and previous names: you apply by post on form 24, it costs £40, and it allows one change of forename and up to three of surname, five years apart. nidirect says GRONI records a change of name for adults born or legally adopted in Northern Ireland, for £35, on the same limits. Can I change the name on my birth certificate? compares the three registers.

How do I find my original birth record?#

You do not need it to make a deed poll. If you want it, each part of the UK has a route, with support along the way.

• England and Wales. GOV.UK says you can access your birth records from 18. If you know your birth details, you order a copy of your original birth certificate from the General Register Office. If you do not, you apply through its Birth certificate Information Before Adoption (BIBA) service, and if you were adopted before 12 November 1975 you first attend a counselling session with an approved adoption adviser.
• Scotland. National Records of Scotland holds the Adopted Children Register and can give you information from your adoption record, which may include the name under which your birth was registered. The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 allows this from 16, and NRS says you have a statutory right to counselling.
• Northern Ireland. nidirect says people adopted there can get a copy of their original birth certificate from 18. If you were adopted before 18 December 1987 and do not know your birth name, you first meet a social worker from a Health and Social Care Trust or a voluntary adoption agency. A pre-adoption birth certificate costs £15.

For an adoption elsewhere, GOV.UK says to contact the General Register Office where you were adopted. Each part of the UK also has an Adoption Contact Register, for adopted adults and birth relatives who both want contact; GOV.UK stresses that it is not a tracing service, and nidirect notes that relatives may need time to think about how to respond.

What about my passport and other records?#

To HM Passport Office, a name that differs from your current passport, or from your adoption certificate on a first application, is a change of name. It asks for evidence of the change, such as the deed poll, and evidence that you use the name, such as a payslip or a letter from your council. You fill in the application in your new name; a new passport costs £102 online or £115.50 on a paper form. Changing your name with HM Passport Office has the detail.

Everyone else changes their records on the strength of the deed poll: who to tell, and in what order. If you are going back to a birth name after a marriage rather than an adoption, can I change my name back? covers the shorter route.