Adult deed poll

What arrives in the envelope

• Your deed poll, drafted by a paralegal in the wording UK organisations recognise, checked by a second person, and printed on certificate paper with space for your old and new signatures and for two witnesses.
• A signing and witnessing guide, one page, so it is executed correctly first time.
• A who-to-tell guide and a cover letter template, for the organisations that hold your records.
• Any certified copies you ordered, so the original stays at home while the copies do the travelling.
• A board-backed envelope if you added one at the checkout.

What the deed says

A deed poll is a short document, and every part of it does a job. Ours has six:

1. Your old name and your new nameExactly as you entered them, checked letter by letter before printing.
2. The declarationThe standard wording in which you give up the old name, adopt the new one, and ask everyone to use it.
3. Your titleMr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Mx, Dr or none, as you chose at the checkout.
4. Your signatures and the dateYou sign once in the old name and once in the new; the date you sign is the date your name changes.
5. Two witness blocksName, address, occupation and signature for each witness.
6. Our sealIdentifying the deed as one we drafted, which is what the guarantee attaches to.

Who it is for

GOV.UK says anyone aged 16 or over can make an unenrolled deed poll. Nobody has to agree, no reason is needed and none is recorded. If you are changing a child's name, use the child deed poll. If you have already changed your name and lost the document, the replacement deed poll is the one.

You need a UK address to post it to. If you are a permanent resident overseas, GOV.UK says you cannot change your name by deed poll, and we would rather tell you that before you order: changing your name if you live outside the UK.

What you can change

Any part of your name: your forename, your surname, a middle name added, removed or moved, or the spelling of a name you already have, and your title alongside it. Our paralegals will not draft a name that includes numbers or symbols, a title or rank you do not hold, or anything offensive, because it would be refused: what you can change your name to.

The other ways, honestly

You are not obliged to buy anything to change your name. This is what each route gets you.

• Just start using the new name. Friends and clubs will go along with it. HM Passport Office, DVLA, your bank and your employer will not: they change a record only against a document.
• Write your own. GOV.UK says you can make an unenrolled deed poll yourself, and it costs nothing. It also warns that some organisations may only accept one they are sure of; the wording, the witnessing and the certificate paper are where a home-made deed goes wrong. What a deed poll is sets out the wording.
• Enrol it at the High Court. Optional, £53.05, puts your names in The Gazette, and GOV.UK's own guidance says it does not make a deed more likely to be accepted. Enrolled and unenrolled deed polls.
• Order one from us. £18.50, drafted and checked by paralegals, posted the same working day, and guaranteed: if any UK organisation refuses it we take it up with them and refund you if it is still refused.

What you pay

A typical order is £23.49: the deed poll and 1st Class post. Nothing recurs and there is nothing to cancel. Payment by card, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Klarna.

What happens after you order

1. Confirmation by email It arrives straight away, with everything you entered, so you can check the names.
2. Drafted and checked A paralegal drafts the deed and a second person checks every name against your order, then it is printed on certificate paper.
3. Posted the same working day In the Royal Mail service you chose at the checkout, from £2.99. Orders placed outside working hours go on the next working day.
4. Signed and witnessed at home No solicitor is needed, and nothing has to be sent back to us or filed anywhere.

After you have signed

Start with the organisations that put your new name in writing: your bank, your employer, HMRC. Then HM Passport Office and DVLA, which each ask for the original deed and post it back. Then everyone else, who take a certified copy. Who to tell, and in what order has the list, and how many certified copies you need has the arithmetic.