How many people change their name in the UK?

Why is there no official count?#

Because nothing has to be registered. The National Archives says it has always been possible to change your name without registering the change with the government or any other official body. GOV.UK says anyone aged 16 or over can make a deed poll and start using the new name straight away, and that you do not need a deed poll at all to take a spouse's or civil partner's surname: you send your certificate to each organisation instead. Each bank, employer and government department then updates its own record, and no official statistic adds those records up.

What can be counted are the moments that leave an official trace: a deed poll enrolled at the High Court, a marriage or civil partnership, a gender recognition certificate. Each covers part of the picture, and none of them is a count of name changes.

How many deed polls are there in the UK each year?#

Only enrolled deed polls are counted, because enrolment is the only kind that is published. Every deed poll enrolled with the High Court is announced in The Gazette under Changes of Name, and a search of The Gazette on 30 September 2026 gives these totals by year of publication:

Each notice records one deed. Of the 4,916 notices published in 2025, 4,888 recorded a deed enrolled in the Senior Courts of England and Wales, 6 came from Northern Ireland, 21 corrected an earlier notice and one had no readable text. The notices come in batches rather than evenly through the year: none was published in January 2026, while September brought more than 400. So compare years with care, and treat 2026 as unfinished: 1,219 notices by 29 September.

Those enrolled deeds are a small fraction of the whole. Enrolment is optional, costs £53.05 and, GOV.UK says, can take several months, and The National Archives estimates that less than 1% of changes of name by deed poll are enrolled. Every other deed poll is signed, witnessed and kept by the person who made it, and is counted nowhere. The Archives gives no method or period for its estimate, so it shows how rare enrolment is; it is not a multiplier for turning the Gazette figures into a national total. Enrolled and unenrolled deed polls compares the two.

How many people marry or form a civil partnership?#

Marriages and civil partnerships are counted exactly, because each one is registered. The latest figures from each of the three statistics offices:

The Office for National Statistics published the 2023 figures for England and Wales on 18 November 2025, and they are its most recent; 7,501 of those marriages were between same-sex couples, and 6,179 of the civil partnerships between opposite-sex couples. National Records of Scotland published Scotland's 2025 figures on 25 August 2026. NISRA's final figures for Northern Ireland are for 2024, with a provisional 7,125 marriages for 2025. Because each office publishes on its own timetable, there is no single UK total for one year.

These figures count couples, not changes of name. A spouse who takes the other's surname does it with the certificate, so the change is recorded only by the organisations they tell, and none of the three offices publishes how many newlyweds change their surname, double-barrel or keep their own.

How many women change their name after marriage in the UK?#

There is no official figure, so the best evidence is polling. YouGov has asked about 2,000 adults in Great Britain the same question every year since 2019: "What would be / is your preferred choice for your surname upon marriage?" In the latest wave, on 27 August 2026 with 2,022 adults, 44% of women chose taking their spouse's surname, down from 52% in 2019. Another 19% preferred that both keep their original names, 8% combining surnames and 2% their spouse taking theirs; the other 27% did not know or did not plan to marry.

The change is sharpest among younger women. In a separate YouGov survey of 2,192 adults in Great Britain in March 2025, 35% of women aged 18 to 34 chose taking their spouse's surname, against 54% to 61% of women in the older age groups, and 24% of the younger women would rather both kept their original names.

These are preferences, from married and unmarried people alike, rather than a record of what couples did. If you are taking your spouse's surname, you usually need no deed poll.

How many people get a gender recognition certificate?#

The Ministry of Justice publishes the Gender Recognition Panel's figures every quarter. The panel granted 1,590 full certificates in the year from April 2025 to March 2026, up from 1,169 the year before and 871 in the year to March 2023, and 516 more from April to June 2026.

A certificate changes legal gender, not name. GOV.UK says you do not need one to update your passport, driving licence or bank account, and it asks applicants who have changed their name to send copies of the documents that show when they did, enrolled or unenrolled deed polls included. The change of name is a separate step, and these figures do not count it. Deed poll or Gender Recognition Certificate? explains how the two fit together.

What about Scotland and Northern Ireland?#

Both have an official way to record a change of name against a birth entry, for people born or adopted there. National Records of Scotland updates the birth or adoption record so that new certificates show the new name and the previous one, though not for a change on marriage, divorce or civil partnership, and nidirect describes a similar route through the General Register Office for Northern Ireland. Neither publishes a count. NRS's statistical tables for 2025 cover adoptions, births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships, and NISRA's annual report for 2024 adds re-registrations and divorces, but neither counts recorded changes of name. Changing your name in Scotland sets out the Scottish route.