Do I need a deed poll for a stage name or pen name?

Do I need a deed poll for a stage name?#

No. The Gazette says you can change any part of your name and start using it without a legal process, and that is as true of a name you use on stage, on a book cover or on a record as of any other. Nothing has to be registered, and no one's permission is needed. The only legal limit is deceit: using a false name dishonestly, to make a gain or cause a loss, is fraud under the Fraud Act 2006. A stage name used openly deceives no one.

What a stage name does not do is change your legal name, so the organisations that pay you, tax you or check your identity keep using the name your documents show. You end up with two names running side by side. For many performers and writers that suits them well; a deed poll is only for when you want the stage name to become your legal name.

Which name do royalty societies, publishers and HMRC use?#

Each sets its own rule, and almost all of them hold your legal name with the professional name alongside it:

Equity adds that it requires an Equity name partly so that royalties can be distributed easily, and that the name stays protected only while you are a member and for up to 12 months after a member's death.

Can my passport show my stage name?#

Yes, as an observation, but not as your name. HM Passport Office's guidance acknowledges that some customers, such as entertainers, find it easier to travel in a stage name. If you send evidence of the stage, professional or religious name, an employment contract for example, the passport is issued in your real name with an observation that "the holder is also known as" the other name. The guidance's own example is a passport for Michael Jones, also known as Signature. The observation has room for 56 characters.

The name on the passport's main page is still the one that counts for travel: GOV.UK says the name you book travel in must match your passport.

When does making it legal help?#

When the stage name has become the name you use for everything. HM Passport Office asks you to apply in the name you use for all official purposes, so once that is your stage name, a deed poll lets the passport, bank, payroll and tax records follow it, rather than carrying it as an extra name. It helps in particular where:

• royalties and invoices have to reconcile two names. A deed poll makes the stage name your own name, so one name runs through your contracts, your invoices and your bank account;
• you travel for work and want tickets, visas and the passport in the name on the bill;
• you have left the old name behind in daily life as well as at work.

The societies make the switch simple. PRS for Music asks for a copy of your deed poll, creates a new legal-name record with a new IPI/CAE number, moves your works across, and charges nothing. Equity charges £32 to change an Equity name, but nothing if you are changing your legal name too. Tell HMRC as well: GOV.UK asks you to report a change of name, and your Self Assessment record updates once you have.

Our deed poll is £18.50, drafted and checked by a paralegal, posted the same working day, and accepted by the passport office: get a deed poll.

What if my stage name is a single word?#

The passport office can issue a passport to someone with only one name: it puts the name in the surname field, prints XXX as the forename, and adds an observation that XXX is not part of the name. Our deed polls always set out a forename and a surname, so we do not draft a one-word name. Can I have just one name? explains what a single legal name involves; as a stage name alone, the "also known as" observation covers it.

Does a deed poll protect my stage name?#

Not in the way people hope. A deed poll records your change of name and nothing more; it is not a registration of the name. Equity says stage names are not subject to copyright, so it cannot stop people inside or outside the industry using a name its members use. All it can do is refuse the same or a similar-sounding Equity name to another member while you belong.