How many times can I change my name?

Is there a limit on how many times you can change your name?#

GOV.UK does not set one. Its guide to changing your name by deed poll has rules about the new name and about who can make a deed, and nothing about how many times. HM Passport Office's guidance to its own staff expects that some people will have changed their name more than once, and treats that as a question of evidence rather than permission. The National Archives adds that anyone over 16 may lawfully begin using a new name "at any time", provided the purpose is not fraudulent or illegal.

The numbers that do exist apply to recording a change against a birth entry in Scotland or Northern Ireland, set out below, and they limit the register rather than the change.

What the passport office asks for after several changes#

Evidence of every change, in order. HM Passport Office's guidance says that someone with several changes of name must send evidence of each one, linking back to their birth, adoption, naturalisation or registration certificate on a first passport application, or to the name on their last passport on a renewal or replacement. Each document has to show the old name and the new one, and staff are told not to accept evidence without a clear link.

If a link is missing, because a document is lost or never existed, the guidance asks for a statutory declaration that lists all the names you have used, when each was used and, where you know them, the circumstances of every change. You also send one piece of proof that you use the new name, a payslip or a council letter for example.

The application asks for your previous name, on an online renewal as well as on paper, and staff search passport records for any passport issued in an earlier version of your name. The guidance notes that most people change their name for genuine reasons, but staff check each change against the office's fraud risk guidance, and as a rule they do not issue a passport while doubts or inconsistencies remain between the application and the documents.

If you hold a passport, each change also means a new one: GOV.UK says you need one to travel in a new name, and any time left on the old one is lost. An adult passport costs £102 online or £115.50 on a paper form.

Why you keep every deed poll#

A new deed poll does not cancel the one before it. Each deed records one change, from the name you gave up to the name you adopted, on the day it was signed, and together they make the chain the passport office follows. A second deed poll therefore gives up the name you use now, not your birth name, and the earlier deeds stay in the folder beside it (does a deed poll expire?). If one has gone missing, a replacement deed poll can record that change again, and I have lost my deed poll explains how to get one.

Going back to an earlier name is a change in its own right, with one shortcut for returning to a birth surname after marriage: can I change my name back?

The limits in Scotland and Northern Ireland#

Two registers do set numbers, and each applies only to people whose birth or adoption was registered there.

• National Records of Scotland records, for someone aged 16 or over, one change of forename and up to three changes of surname, with at least five years between surname changes. Its application form treats middle names as forenames, and the Act behind the register counts a new spelling, a hyphen, an added name or a dropped one as a change. An application past either limit is refused.
• The General Register Office for Northern Ireland records, for someone aged 18 or over, one change of forename and up to three changes of surname, again five years apart, and its form asks for the date of any earlier application.

Both laws also say that nothing in them affects any rule of law on changing a name. Reaching the limit stops the register recording another change; it does not stop the change. A deed poll is still the evidence, and HM Passport Office's guidance tells its staff to accept a properly made one, wherever the person was born. Changing your name in Scotland and changing your name in Northern Ireland explain each record and its fee.

How other organisations treat several changes#

Few publish anything, and none that we checked publishes a limit. GOV.UK's deed poll wording has you acknowledge that when you apply for official documents in the new name, the authorities may check "the history and validity" of both names. Criminal record checks ask for the whole history: the Disclosure and Barring Service's application form wants every name you have been known by since birth, with the dates you used each (can I change my name if I have a criminal record?). For credit files, does changing my name affect my credit rating? explains how an old name stays linked to the new one. What each of them looks for is a history that joins up.