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

Can I legally use both my married and maiden names?#

Yes. The National Archives says it is perfectly legal for anyone over 16 to start using a new name at any time, provided it is not for a fraudulent or illegal reason. A surname you were born with and one you took on marriage are both names you are entitled to use, at work, socially or professionally. What crosses the line is deception: in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 defines fraud by false representation as dishonestly making an untrue or misleading representation to make a gain or cause a loss, and a false name can be such a representation. Using a maiden name openly at work deceives nobody.

The limit is on records, not on use. HM Passport Office's names policy says a person must use only one name for all official purposes, and that the name on a passport application must match their documents. So you can be known by two surnames, but one of them has to be the name on your passport, payroll and bank account.

Which name is the official one?#

The one you choose to use for all official purposes. HM Passport Office's guidance says there is no legal basis in the UK for a name to change because of a marriage or civil partnership: you may keep your own surname, take your spouse's or civil partner's, or combine them. Its change of name guidance then describes both versions of using two surnames:

• You take your spouse's surname officially but keep using your own, for professional purposes for example. You tell HM Passport Office on the application or in a signed statement, and it issues the passport in your married name with an observation that you are also known by your previous surname.
• You took your spouse's surname but use your previous one for all official purposes. The passport is issued in your previous name, with an observation recording the married surname.

Either way the passport is in the name your other records use. What is my legal name? explains how that name is proved.

Work name and official name, record by record#

Payroll and HMRC#

Payroll is where the two names meet. HMRC's list of what each Full Payment Submission must contain asks for your surname spelt correctly and your first forename in full, without nicknames or familiar names, and it has one surname field. GOV.UK's payroll guidance says that when an employee's surname changes, the employee must tell HMRC straight away and the employer updates its payroll records. So your payslip carries your official surname, even if your colleagues never see it.

That need not decide what you are called at work. NHS Employers' identity checks standard recommends recording a person's full legal name alongside all other names they are known by, and counts marriage and professional reasons among the legitimate reasons for documents in different names. Ask HR to hold your maiden name as the name you work under, with your official name behind it for payroll. Changing your name with your employer covers the payroll side in detail.

Right to work and DBS checks#

A right to work check is made from your documents, so it sees your official name. If your documents disagree, such as a birth certificate in your maiden name beside an HMRC letter in your married name, the Home Office's guide tells employers to check the reason with supporting evidence such as a marriage certificate. For a statement that both names are yours, see one and the same person declarations.

A DBS check takes both names. DBS's guide to the application form says that if you use two names at the same time, for example for professional reasons, your primary name goes in the current name fields and the secondary one in the other names section, with today's date as the end date. DBS checks covers previous names more generally.

Professional registers#

If your work depends on a register, the regulator decides which name it shows, and these three tie it to the name you practise in:

• The Nursing and Midwifery Council says it is really important that you are registered in the same name that you practise in, because patients, the public and employers use the register.
• The GMC says doctors must use their full registered name on statutory documents such as prescriptions; a change of registered name needs evidence such as a marriage certificate.
• The General Pharmaceutical Council asks to be told within a month if you want to practise in a new name, and says that if you keep using your previous name for work, you need not tell it at all.

Professional regulators sets out how 24 of them handle a change of name.

If you work for yourself#

A sole trader can keep a maiden name as a business name. GOV.UK says you can trade under your own name or choose another name for your business, but that you must include your name and any business name on official paperwork, such as invoices and letters. Your Self Assessment record stays in your official name, which you update with HMRC like anyone else.

Mrs, Ms or Miss at work?#

Any of them, whatever you decide about surnames. A title is not part of your name: GOV.UK says a deed poll cannot change one, and that changing your title needs no new passport. Payroll records a title in a field of its own, so you can be Ms at work and Mrs elsewhere, or the reverse. Can a deed poll change my title?

When to settle on one name#

Running two surnames works best when the split is clean: one for official records, one for work. If you find the work name has become the one you use for everything, make it the official one. For a passport, going back to your own surname from a married name needs no deed poll: GOV.UK asks for a signed statement that you have returned to your previous surname for all purposes, which it explains means you will not use the married name at all, with the certificate showing both names (going back to your maiden name without a divorce). A name the certificate cannot show, such as a merged surname, needs a deed poll.

If you remarry while working under an earlier surname, the same choices apply again: changing your name when you remarry.