About Gingerbread#
Gingerbread is the national charity for single parents and their families in England and Wales. It publishes information for single parents, including legal help on children and responsibilities, campaigns on policy that affects single-parent families, and runs a community: local and digital groups and an online forum, with membership open to any single parent in England and Wales. It asks people to check they have the right Gingerbread, because several unrelated local groups and businesses share the name.
Getting help now its helpline has closed#
Its contact page says the helpline and web chat are now closed, and points single parents to the online information and the community instead. That makes its written pages, like the one on names, the main help it offers. If you need to talk a legal question through, the page itself links to GOV.UK's civil legal advice service for legal aid.
What it says about changing a child's name#
The page begins with the child. It suggests asking whether the change could affect the child's relationship with the other parent or relatives, whether it will help them feel more or less secure, and, if the new surname is a new partner's, whether the relationship is settled enough for that.
Then the rules, for England and Wales:
- Consent. To change a child's name formally, everyone with parental responsibility must agree. A 16 or 17 year old's written agreement is needed for an enrolled deed poll.
- The court. Without agreement you can apply for a court order on form C100, after first trying to agree. It notes that a request to double-barrel the surname tends to succeed more often than replacing it, because the link to the other parent stays.
- Four ways to change. Informally, by using the new name; by statutory declaration; by deed poll, either unenrolled through a solicitor or specialist agency, or enrolled with the Royal Courts of Justice; or, in narrow cases, by changing the birth certificate.
- Enrolment. All those with parental responsibility sign, with two witnesses. If you cannot reach the other parent, you explain how long it has been, what you have tried, and the signs of their absence.
- Birth certificates. A first name can be changed once within twelve months of registration; a surname normally cannot, and it notes that GRO guidance on re-registering a birth does not say a surname can be changed that way.
Is the court fee still £263?#
The page gives the C100 fee as £263. HMCTS's family court fee list (EX50) now gives £270 for a new Children Act application, and help with fees can reduce or remove it on a low income, as the page says. GOV.UK lists enrolment of a child's deed poll at £53.05, matching the page. Enrolment is optional: HM Passport Office accepts an unenrolled deed poll for a child, signed with everyone's consent.
Where this handbook adds detail#
- Using form C100 to change a child's name: mediation, the form and the fee.
- Giving a child a double-barrelled surname: the option Gingerbread mentions.
- Changing a child's surname to the mother's or the father's: including what changed at register offices in July 2026.
- Statutory declaration of name change: how it compares with a deed poll.
This page describes what Gingerbread publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. Gingerbread has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
