Do I have to change my name when I get married?

Do I have to change my name when I get married?#

No. HM Passport Office's guidance to its staff puts it plainly: in the UK there is no legal basis for a name to change because of a marriage or civil partnership. It lists the choices as keeping your own name, taking your partner's surname, making a double-barrelled surname from both, or taking part of your partner's surname. National Records of Scotland says the same for Scotland: you do not need to change your surname after a marriage or civil partnership. The guidance is written for spouses and civil partners alike, whichever of you would change.

Nothing you sign at the wedding chooses a name. The certificate records each of you under the name you had on the day, which HM Passport Office describes as evidence of the event and who took part in it. It becomes evidence of a new name only when you send it to an organisation and ask for your record to be changed.

What happens if I keep my name?#

Nothing, and nothing has to be done. A new passport is not needed: GOV.UK says so for anyone who marries or forms a civil partnership and keeps their name, and with no change of name there is nothing to report to DVLA, your bank or anyone else.

Your choices, side by side#

Using Amy Shah, who marries Tom Ellis, as the example:

The certificate covers a surname made from the two you married under, because it shows how the new one was made. HM Passport Office will not accept it for a one-word blend or for a surname turned into a middle name. The surname combiner sets out the options for your own two names.

Can I keep my maiden name at work and use my married name elsewhere?#

Yes, though only one can be your name for official purposes: HM Passport Office's names policy says you must use one name for all official purposes. If you take your spouse's surname but keep using your own as well, at work for example, you say so on the passport application or in a signed statement, and the passport is issued in your married name with an observation that you are also known by your previous surname. It works the other way round too: if you use your own surname for all official purposes but are also known by your married one, the passport stays in your own name and the observation records the married surname. If you also hold another nationality, GOV.UK says the name on your British passport must match your other passport.

Forms can cope with both. GOV.UK's guide to the DBS application tells anyone using two names at once, for professional reasons for example, to enter the main one as their current name and the other among their other names. Using a different name without changing it legally covers professional names in general.

Can I travel on my passport in my maiden name after the wedding?#

Yes. Marriage does not cancel or alter a passport, and HM Passport Office's notes for newly married couples say you can carry on using your current passport and take your certificate with you when you travel. GOV.UK's rule is that the name you book under must match your passport, so book the honeymoon in the name it shows.

If you want to travel in a married name straight after the ceremony, a passport in that name can be issued up to three months before, post-dated so it is valid only from the day. Changing your name before the wedding explains the catch: your current passport is cancelled when you apply.

Mrs or Ms?#

Either, whatever you decide about your surname. A title is not part of your name: GOV.UK says a deed poll cannot change one, such as Mr or Mrs, and that changing your title needs no new passport. You tell each organisation which you want. Barclays, for example, changes a title to Mrs, Ms, Miss or Mx with no documents at all, and DVLA's process for a title is the same as for a name, with evidence needed only for a hereditary title. Can a deed poll change my title?

What about our children's surnames?#

Your decision about your own name does not decide theirs.

• Children born after the wedding. When you register the birth, the registrar enters the surname by which you intend the child to be known (regulation 9 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987), so it can be either parent's or both, whatever surnames the two of you use. What can I name my baby?
• Children you already have together. Parents who marry after a birth must re-register it, but HM Passport Office's guidance says that since 13 July 2026 this no longer changes the child's surname. A new surname needs a child deed poll agreed by everyone with parental responsibility: changing a child's surname to the mother's or the father's.
• Children from an earlier relationship. Marrying their parent changes nothing. A new surname needs the agreement of everyone with parental responsibility for them: changing a stepchild's surname.

If your surname will differ from your child's, GOV.UK says you may be asked at the border, coming into the UK, to prove the relationship, and that a birth certificate with a marriage or divorce certificate does so: travelling with a child who has a different surname.

How long do I have to change my name after marriage?#

As long as you like. Because marriage does not change a name in law, there is no window that closes, and neither GOV.UK nor HM Passport Office sets a time limit for using the certificate. Years later it still links the name you married under to your spouse's surname. If you have changed your name more than once, HM Passport Office asks for evidence of each change, linking back to your birth certificate on a first passport or to your last passport on a renewal.