Changing a child's surname to the mother's or the father's

Which route fits your family#

In England and Wales, GOV.UK's route for changing a child's name is a deed poll, and the rule is the same whichever parent's surname the child is taking: everyone with parental responsibility must agree, or a court must order the change. Re-registering the birth used to offer a second route when parents married, and that route has now closed.

When the parents marry after the birth#

Parents who marry, or form a civil partnership, after the birth must re-register it. GOV.UK says this is required "by law", and the Legitimacy Act 1976 puts the duty on the parents to give the information within three months of the marriage. Re-registration is free, the new entry shows the child as a child of the marriage, and any new certificate is ordered and paid for separately. GOV.UK also says a father who marries the mother after the birth gains parental responsibility automatically.

What it can no longer do is change the surname. The General Register Office's form LA1 now states that the child's surname will be recorded as it is in the existing registration. HM Passport Office's guidance to its staff records the change: until 13 July 2026 the General Register Office, and its counterpart in Northern Ireland, allowed the surname to be changed during this re-registration, and from that date parents who want to change it, to the father's surname or a double-barrelled one for example, must use a deed poll or change of name deed. Both parents hold parental responsibility by then, so both must agree to it.

When the father is added to the birth record#

If you are not married to each other and the father was not registered, his details can be added by re-registering the birth on form GRO 185. At least one parent signs the new registration at a register office in England or Wales; the other comes too, or makes a statutory declaration, or the parent attending brings a parental responsibility agreement or court order. It costs nothing, the new registration replaces the original, and a father added at the joint request of both parents, or on a statutory declaration, gains parental responsibility under section 4 of the Children Act 1989. From then on his agreement is needed for any change to the child's name.

The General Register Office's form and guidance for this re-registration say nothing about changing the child's surname. HM Passport Office's guidance tells its staff that where the General Register Office agrees to change a child's surname on re-registration, the new surname can only be the father's or the mother's, the two combined, the mother's maiden surname, or one that follows another cultural custom, and everyone with parental responsibility must agree. Ask the register office when you book whether the surname can change at the same time. If it cannot, a deed poll does it.

A deed poll, in either direction#

A deed poll works for a change to the mother's surname or to the father's, at any time before the child turns 16. A parent makes it on the child's behalf, and it is valid only with the agreement of everyone who holds parental responsibility. Where the father does not hold it, because the parents were not married, he was not registered as the father and there is no agreement or court order, only the people who do hold it need to agree, and that may be the mother alone. Changing a child's name sets out who holds it; from 16 a young person makes their own deed poll: my child is 16 or 17.

After a separation#

Separating does not change who decides. A parent who no longer lives with the child keeps parental responsibility, and GOV.UK says the other parent must include them in important decisions. So a mother who wants the child to share the surname she now uses needs the father's agreement if he holds parental responsibility, and a father who wants the child to take his surname needs the mother's, since GOV.UK says a birth mother has parental responsibility automatically. If you cannot agree, the family court decides on the child's welfare: changing a child's surname without the other parent's consent explains that route.

The passport#

A new surname needs a new passport. GOV.UK asks for the deed poll, at least one record proving the child uses the new name, such as an NHS, Child Benefit or school record, and the written consent of everyone with parental responsibility. A child's passport costs £66.50 online or £80 by post. Where the surname changed at re-registration instead, HM Passport Office's guidance accepts the new birth certificate as evidence of the change, without proof of use or further consent.

What the passport office will not accept is a change made without the consent of everyone with parental responsibility or a court order. Its guidance tells staff to issue the passport in the child's original name in that case, even if the new name is already used with the NHS and for Child Benefit.

Scotland and Northern Ireland#

In Scotland, re-registration to add the father, or the parents' later marriage, is free at any registration office, and National Records of Scotland says it can in some cases give the child the father's surname. Otherwise NRS can record one change of a child's surname before 16, on an application signed by both parents where both have parental responsibilities, for £40; new certificates then show the new and original names. A deed poll works in Scotland too.

For a birth registered in Northern Ireland, the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRONI) will record one change of a child's forename or surname before 18, on a form the qualifying parents sign before a justice of the peace, lay magistrate or practising solicitor, for £35. nidirect still describes re-registration after marriage as a way to change a child's surname, but HM Passport Office's guidance says GRONI stopped making that change on 13 July 2026, so ask GRONI before relying on it.