Is my middle name a forename?

Is a middle name a forename?#

Yes. On UK official forms, your forenames are all the names that come before your surname: your first name and every middle name, in the order your documents give them. Your surname is the only name kept apart. So a woman named Anna Ruth Carter has two forenames, Anna and Ruth, and one surname, Carter.

The confusion comes from everyday English. The Cambridge Dictionary gives "first name" as a synonym of forename, and in conversation the two are used interchangeably. Official forms are more exact, and they usually show it with a plural: "forenames" or "forename(s)". Three government sources spell it out:

• National Records of Scotland. The guidance notes to its change of name form for adults say that any reference to forenames "also includes any middle names", and both its adult and child forms describe a change of forenames as a change to first and middle names.
• HMRC. Its payroll fields ask employers for an employee's forename and then a "second forename or given name", each in full, without nicknames or familiar names. A middle name is the second forename.
• HM Passport Office. A paper passport application has one forenames section for first and middle names together: when it is left blank, the passport office's system raises a task called "Blank first and middle names". The application allows 30 characters for forenames and 30 for the surname.

Forename, first name, given name: what each word means#

The photocard driving licence follows the same split, with your surname in field 1 and your first names in field 2, as nidirect's guide to the licence explains. A title such as Mr or Dr is not a forename unless it is genuinely part of the name: HM Passport Office's guidance gives the example of a customer whose forename is "Doctor".

How do I fill in a forenames box?#

Follow the form's own boxes, and use the name your documents show.

• One box for "Forename(s)". Write every forename in full, in order, with a space between each, exactly as on your passport or birth certificate.
• A "First name" box and a "Middle name(s)" box. Put your first forename in the first box and the rest in the second. HM Courts and Tribunals Service's deed poll form is built this way, and its guidance says to include all the details of your old and new names, "including any middle names".
• Only a "First name" box. Give your first forename. The form has simply not asked for the rest.
• An "Initials" box. HMRC asks for initials only where the employer does not know the full forenames, so give full names wherever there is room.
• Never a nickname. HMRC says not to use nicknames or familiar names, and a shortened first name is not your forename unless you have changed it.

Is my middle name part of my legal name?#

Yes. Your full legal name is every forename and your surname (what is my legal name?). A middle name that a bank card, form or certificate leaves out is still yours. HM Passport Office treats it that way: if a renewal application leaves out a middle name shown on the old passport, and there is no evidence of a change of name, its staff put the middle name back. The opposite also holds, which is useful when gathering proof: the passport office accepts evidence of a new name that omits an unchanged second forename, and evidence that shows a changed middle name only by its initial.

The glossary has the short definitions.

Can I change a middle name, or use it as my first name?#

Yes. GOV.UK says a deed poll can change any part of your name and add or remove names, so a middle name can be added, dropped, replaced or moved.

HM Passport Office is more relaxed about some forename changes than others. Its guidance treats a change to the order of your forenames, or dropping one or more forenames other than the first, as a minor change, accepted for a passport with two pieces of evidence that you use the new form. Adding a forename is never minor: it needs evidence of a change of name, such as a deed poll, as well as evidence of use. Moving a name between your forenames and your surname is not on the minor list either. Banks can be stricter than the passport office: Barclays, for example, asks adults changing a first or middle name for government photo ID in the new name.

Adding, removing or moving a middle name takes each change in turn, can I change my first name? covers going by your middle name instead, and keeping your maiden name as a middle name explains why a marriage certificate does not cover a new forename. The name checker tests a new name against GOV.UK's rules before you commit to it.