Can I drop one half of my double-barrelled surname?

Which document drops which half?#

Yes, and the document you need depends on which half goes, and why. GOV.UK says a deed poll can change any part of your name, including adding or removing names or hyphens, so a deed poll will do any of the changes below. Only going back to your own surname after a divorce can usually be done without one.

Going back to your own surname after a divorce#

If you double-barrelled when you married, the surname you are going back to is the one on your birth and marriage certificates, which is why this is the one half you can usually drop without a deed poll. GOV.UK's deed poll guidance says that, after a divorce or dissolution, showing your marriage certificate and decree absolute, or your civil partnership certificate and final order, may be enough to return to your original name. It also warns that some organisations insist on a deed poll before they will switch a name back.

For the passport, GOV.UK asks for your birth certificate, the marriage or civil partnership certificate showing both names, your own signed statement that you have returned to your previous surname "for all purposes", and something showing you using it, a payslip or a council letter for example. HM Passport Office does not accept divorce papers on their own, because those issued in England and Wales since 1971 do not show the link between the names. If the surname you are returning to was not your birth surname, because you had changed it before you married, its guidance treats the return as a new change of name, needing evidence such as a deed poll and proof that you use the name.

Before the divorce is final, a deed poll does the job, and it can be signed at any stage. Going back to your maiden name and changing your name back have the detail.

Keeping only your spouse's or partner's half#

This is a change of name, so it needs a deed poll or a statutory declaration. HM Passport Office's guidance deals with it directly: a customer whose passport shows a double-barrelled married surname, and who wants to renew it in the married surname alone, must send evidence of a change of name, "as we cannot use the marriage or civil partnership certificate", and evidence that they use the name. Its example of that evidence is a statutory declaration, and an unenrolled deed poll is on the same list of documents its staff must accept. The rule is the same if you divorce and decide to keep only your former partner's surname (keeping your married name).

Dropping half of a surname you were born with#

If your birth certificate shows a double-barrelled surname, dropping one half is a change of name like any other. GOV.UK's deed poll guidance lets you remove names, and the deed sets out your full old name and your full new name. HM Passport Office's list of minor changes, the ones it accepts on proof of use alone, includes only one change to a surname: adding or removing the hyphen. Dropping half is not on it, so for a passport you send the deed poll with one recent document in the new name: a bank statement, or an employer's or council letter, dated within the last 12 months.

Ours costs £18.50: a paralegal drafts and checks it, then it goes in the post the same working day. Some banks, such as Lloyds, Halifax, Santander and TSB, accept an unenrolled deed poll only with a passport or driving licence in the new name, so one of those comes first there (banks compared).

Adding or removing the hyphen#

GOV.UK's rules allow a hyphen in a name, and a deed poll can add or remove one. For an adult's passport, HM Passport Office counts adding or removing the hyphen in a double-barrelled surname as a minor change. On a first passport it accepts the new form without evidence, as long as the spelling and the order of the names have not changed. On a renewal it issues the passport in your old passport's form unless you send two documents showing you use the new one.

For a child there is no such thing as a minor change: the guidance lists adding or removing a hyphen among the changes that count as a change of name, needing everyone's consent (a child's double-barrelled surname).

The hyphen matters less to machines than to people. In the machine-readable lines of a passport, the international standard prints a hyphen as a filler sign, so Smith-Jones and Smith Jones look the same there. If your other passport differs from your British one only by a hyphen, a space or an apostrophe, HM Passport Office does not ask you to align them, though it records the other passport's version as an observation. Running the two names together as one word is different again: that makes a new, combined surname.

Passports and other records#

Whichever form you choose, use it the same way everywhere. A passport application has room for 30 characters in the surname, spaces included. If a double-barrelled surname is longer, HM Passport Office keeps the first surname, fits in as much of the rest as it can, using initials where it must, and records your full name as an observation (long names and accents).

DVLA changes the name on a licence free of charge: you send form D1 with your licence and original documents, not photocopies, and you may go on driving in the meantime. For everyone else, who to tell, and in what order has the list. If you are adding a second surname rather than dropping one, double-barrelling after marriage explains when the certificate is enough.