Can we combine our surnames into a new one when we marry?

Double-barrelled, merged or new: which are you choosing?#

HM Passport Office's guidance to its staff starts from a plain point: in the UK, marrying or forming a civil partnership does not change anyone's name by law. What you do with your surnames is a choice, and the guidance lists what a couple may do: keep their own surnames, take a partner's, take part of a partner's, or create a double-barrelled surname from both. For the last three, the certificate is the evidence. A combined surname, often called a meshed or blended one, is not on that list, and nor is a surname that belongs to neither of you.

The guidance uses a couple called Linda Crickle and John Wood, and their names serve for every row here:

Why the certificate cannot carry a merged name#

The passport office accepts a marriage or civil partnership certificate as evidence of a change of name only if it shows the link between the old name and the new one; its guidance describes the certificate as evidence of the event and of who took part in it. For a double-barrelled surname it looks for three things: the certificate shows the link, it shows how the new name was made, and the spelling has not changed. Crickle-Wood meets all three, because both names appear on the certificate exactly as they are written.

Cricklewood does not. The guidance says a surname made by combining both into one word, without a hyphen or a space, is not double-barrelled, and that staff cannot accept the change without more evidence, such as a change of name deed, and proof that the name is used for all official purposes. A blend that keeps only part of each name is further still from anything the certificate shows. For a change the certificate cannot evidence, GOV.UK's passport guidance names a deed poll, a statutory declaration or an affidavit, sent with proof that you are using the new name.

A deed poll for each of you#

A deed poll is one person's declaration, so each partner who takes the combined surname makes their own, setting out their full old name and full new name and signed in both. If only one of you takes it, only that person needs one. HM Passport Office must accept an unenrolled deed poll that is signed in the old and new names, witnessed by at least one person, signed in wet ink and dated, and the witness need not be a solicitor.

With us each deed poll is £18.50. A paralegal drafts and checks it, we post it the same working day, and it is guaranteed to be accepted or your money back.

You can sign before the wedding or after it. Signed before, the deed poll is one of the documents you take when you give notice, because GOV.UK asks for proof of any change of name, such as a copy of a deed poll; changing your name before the wedding explains what the marriage record then shows. Signed after, the deed poll on its own links the name you married in to the new one.

Same-sex couples and civil partners#

Nothing here depends on whom you marry. GOV.UK's rule is written for a spouse or civil partner, HM Passport Office's guidance says a civil partnership certificate is "similar to a marriage certificate", and its rules on surnames are written for a customer and their partner. Two husbands, two wives or two civil partners who combine their surnames each make a deed poll in exactly the same way.

The order to change your records#

1. Sign the deed poll. GOV.UK says you can use a signed deed poll as proof of your new name straight away.
2. Get one document in the new name. The passport office wants one piece of evidence that you use the name, such as a bank statement, a letter from your employer or HMRC, a council letter or a utility bill, and most kinds must have been issued in the last 12 months. So the bank or your employer comes before the passport, unless your bank is one of those that want the passport or licence first, such as Lloyds, Halifax, Santander, TSB, Revolut or Chase UK (banks compared).
3. Apply for the passport. GOV.UK asks for the deed poll, proof of any earlier change of name and the document showing the new name in use. It costs £102 online or £115.50 by paper form. Do not book travel until it arrives: the new passport has a new number.
4. Change your driving licence. DVLA charges nothing. You send form D1 with your licence and original documents, not photocopies, and GOV.UK says you can still drive in the meantime. The log book (V5C) needs changing too if you keep a vehicle.
5. Tell everyone else. Who to tell, and in what order has the full list.

Your children's surname#

Your deed polls change your names, not your children's. GOV.UK's rule for a child is that everyone with parental responsibility must agree, or a court must order the change, and HM Passport Office asks for that consent, evidence of the change and proof that the child uses the new name. If the two of you are the only people with parental responsibility and you both agree, a child deed poll records the change; a parent elsewhere who holds it must agree too.

Marrying does not change a child's surname either. HM Passport Office's birth registration guidance says that since 13 July 2026 the General Register Office, and its counterpart in Northern Ireland, no longer change it when a birth is re-registered after the parents marry or form a civil partnership; the parents now need a deed poll or change of name deed. Giving a child a double-barrelled surname and changing a child's surname to the mother's or the father's cover the child's side.