Who Mermaids helps#
Mermaids began in 1995 as a group of parents meeting around a kitchen table, and is now a registered charity (a charitable incorporated organisation) supporting trans, non-binary and gender-diverse children and young people, their families, and the teachers, social workers and others who work with them. Its support line says it is for young people under 20 and the people around them. It also runs moderated online forums, in-person peer groups for families and young people in different parts of the UK, family days, and a youth advocacy programme, MANGO, for 16 to 19 year olds.
Reaching the support line#
The support line page has the opening hours, the web chat and an email address; Mermaids says it aims to answer emails within five working days, and that calls and chat are free. Be clear about what the line is for: Mermaids says it offers a listening space, information and signposting, not advice, and that it is not a crisis service. Calls usually last about half an hour. Contacts are confidential unless someone is at risk, and the page explains what is recorded.
What Mermaids publishes about changing your name#
Its page "Changing your name via deed poll" has two sets of free templates to download, one for under-16s and one for people aged 16 and over, each with consent letters for asking organisations to update a title or gender marker. The questions underneath cover most of what families ask:
- Cost. Mermaids says a deed poll need not cost anything: with a printer you can make an unenrolled one at home from its template, without any online company.
- Witnesses. It asks for two independent witnesses, over 18, permanently resident in the UK and not family members.
- Age. From 16 most young people can make their own deed poll without a parent. Mermaids lists exceptions where a young person may have to wait until 18, such as a child arrangements order about where they live, a special guardianship order or a care order.
- Under 16. A parent with parental responsibility can make the deed poll, with the consent of everyone else who has parental responsibility. If one parent will not agree, the other can ask the family court for a specific issue order; Mermaids suggests legal advice first.
- Scotland and Northern Ireland. It says a deed poll is a valid route in both.
- Who to send it to. The GP, school, bank, HM Passport Office, DVLA, HMRC and benefits, and exam boards for certificates.
An older page, written for a 2020 campaign, adds that enrolling a deed poll makes it no more legally effective, and that many trans and non-binary people choose not to because enrolment is advertised in The Gazette. It also suggests getting certified copies so you can keep the original safe.
How it fits with GOV.UK#
Mermaids' starting point matches GOV.UK's: anyone aged 16 or over can make an unenrolled deed poll, and GOV.UK publishes wording for it free. GOV.UK's own rule for witnesses is two people aged 18 or over, and it warns that some organisations will not accept a witness who lives at your address or is a close relative, so Mermaids' stricter list is a safe one to follow. A paid deed poll adds checking, certificate paper and certified copies rather than legal force; Can I get a deed poll for free? sets out the difference.
A deed poll changes the name only. A passport gender marker is a separate request with its own evidence, and for anyone under 18 it needs the consent of everyone with parental responsibility.
More on a young person's name change#
- Changing a trans child's name: consent, court orders and the passport marker together.
- Changing your name at 16 or 17: what a young person can do alone, and the court orders that stop it.
- Changing the gender marker on a passport: what HM Passport Office asks for.
- Charities for trans and non-binary people: the other charities that publish name change help.
This page describes what Mermaids publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. Mermaids has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
