How to change your name in Scotland

How do you change your name in Scotland?#

If you were born or adopted in Scotland, you change your name officially by asking National Records of Scotland (NRS) to record it against your birth or adoption entry. You post NRS's form 24, signed by hand, and pay £40 when NRS emails to ask; the change is confirmed within 15 working days of payment, and new birth certificates then show your new name and your previous one. You do not need a deed poll, and HM Passport Office must accept the new certificate as evidence of the change. If you were born outside Scotland, NRS says you change your name by deed poll, by statutory declaration, or through the process in your country of birth.

Two common changes need nothing at all. NRS says you do not have to formally change your surname after marriage, divorce or a civil partnership: most organisations accept the marriage or civil partnership certificate, or the decree of divorce, as the evidence.

How to record a change of name with NRS#

1. Check you can use it. Your birth or adoption must be registered in Scotland (NRS's form also covers an entry in Scotland's parental order or gender recognition register), and the change must not be because of marriage, divorce or a civil partnership.
2. Choose the form. Form 24 for anyone aged 16 or over, signed by the person whose name is changing. Form 23 for a child under 16. For a baby under 12 months, form 21 changes a forename and form 23 a surname.
3. Fill it in. Give your names exactly as they appear on your birth entry, then the new forenames, the new surname or both, printed clearly with any capitals and accents shown. Middle names count as forenames.
4. Sign it by hand and post it to the Change of Name Team, New Register House, West Register Street, Edinburgh EH1 3YT, with your email address. NRS does not take applications online, and it uses email for everything after that.
5. Pay when NRS asks. NRS aims to email you within 20 days to confirm the details and ask for the fee: £40, plus £10 for each extra family member applying at the same time, paid through ScotlandsPeople.
6. Order new certificates. Within 15 working days of payment NRS emails to confirm the change and explain how to order a replacement. It does not send one automatically; you buy it from ScotlandsPeople or your local registration office.

The law sets how often this can be done. Under section 43 of the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965, a person aged 16 or over can have one change of forename and up to three changes of surname recorded, with at least five years between surname changes; a child under 16 can have one of each. Past those limits you can still change your name by deed poll or statutory declaration; NRS simply cannot record it.

What is different in Scotland#

Two things, and they are often confused.

The evidence of a change is the same. A deed poll is a legal document, made and signed by one person, that proves a change of name, and it does so in Scotland as anywhere else in the UK. HM Passport Office and DVLA are UK-wide bodies and accept one wherever you were born. A statutory declaration, a sworn statement made in front of a notary public or a justice of the peace, does the same job and is the more traditional Scottish document. Neither is registered anywhere on its own.

The record is what differs. In England and Wales a birth certificate is never amended for an adult's change of name. In Scotland, if your birth was registered there, National Records of Scotland can record the change against your birth entry, so that new copies of your birth certificate show your new name alongside your previous one. That is a record, not a requirement: it costs £40, and nothing obliges you to do it. The birth certificate checker sets the Scottish record beside the other UK registers.

GOV.UK's deed poll guide points people born in Scotland to these different rules, which is where the idea that "deed polls do not work in Scotland" comes from. They do; the NRS record is an alternative, available only to people whose births or adoptions are registered in Scotland.

Changing your name as an adult#

From 16 you decide for yourself, without anyone's agreement, and there is no need to give a reason.

1. Record it with NRS, or make the evidence yourself. If your birth or adoption is registered in Scotland, the NRS record above is a complete route on its own; the form is the application and does not ask for a deed poll. Otherwise, or if you need evidence straight away, make a deed poll, signed in front of two independent adult witnesses, or a statutory declaration. Ours is £18.50, posted the same working day to any UK address, and is accepted by HM Passport Office, DVLA and Scottish organisations alike.
2. Use both, if it helps. You can sign a deed poll to use at once and record the change with NRS as well, so that your birth certificate matches. Neither needs the other.
3. Tell the organisations that hold your records, in the same order as anywhere else: the ones that produce a document in your new name first, then passport and licence, then the rest. Who to tell, and in what order.

Changing a child's name#

A child under 16 cannot change their own name. A parent applies on the child's behalf. Scots law lets each parent with parental rights act alone, but a parent making a major decision must give the child the chance to give their views and, where practicable, take account of the other parent's; in practice National Records of Scotland and HM Passport Office both want everyone who holds parental rights and responsibilities to agree. NRS's form 23 must be signed by both parents where both hold them, and without both signatures it goes no further unless a court order or other supporting documents come with it. Scots law uses that phrase where England uses "parental responsibility", and GOV.UK notes that Scotland has its own rules on who holds it. Where the parents cannot agree, the decision is one for the sheriff court, not for a deed poll. Changing a child's name covers the rest of the process, most of which is the same across the UK.

Where the child's birth was registered in Scotland, a parent can also apply to NRS to record the change against the birth entry, on NRS's forms for children. A child under 16 can have one change of forename and one change of surname recorded, and NRS's form asks parents to take the child's views into account, according to their age and maturity. A young person of 16 or 17 applies for themselves, on form 24.

Born in Scotland, living elsewhere#

You can still record a change with NRS: the record follows the birth entry, not your address, and you apply by post on the same form. Once it is recorded, the new birth certificate showing both names is evidence of the change in its own right: HM Passport Office's guidance tells its staff they must accept a Scottish birth certificate as evidence of a change of name. A deed poll is the quicker route if you need evidence straight away, because the NRS record takes some weeks. The organisations that hold your records are told in exactly the same way as for anyone else.

Born elsewhere, living in Scotland#

A deed poll or statutory declaration is your evidence, and it works with every Scottish organisation and every UK-wide one. The NRS record is not available, because your birth entry is not in the Scottish register; if you were born in England or Wales, the General Register Office does not record changes of name at all, and if you were born in Northern Ireland, the General Register Office for Northern Ireland can record one on similar terms to NRS. Can I change the name on my birth certificate? covers each register.

What HM Passport Office and DVLA want#

The same as for anyone else in the UK. HM Passport Office asks for the original deed poll, or the statutory declaration, and one document showing you already use the new name; a change of name means a new passport, £102 online. DVLA changes the name on a driving licence free, on form D1 from a Post Office, sent with the licence and the original evidence. An NRS record is not required by either. If you have one, HM Passport Office's guidance says its staff must accept the new Scottish birth certificate, showing both names, as evidence of the change.

The statutory declaration, if you choose that route#

A statutory declaration is a written statement that you declare to be true in front of a person authorised to take declarations. NRS names a notary public or a justice of the peace, and HM Passport Office's guidance also accepts one taken by a local councillor in Scotland, if dated on or after 10 December 2007. For a change of name it states the name you were born with, the name you have adopted, and that you will use the new name for all purposes. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service says justices of the peace witness statutory declarations for a change of name free of charge at present, by appointment at your local justice of the peace court, but they do not draft or supply the wording; most solicitors are notaries and will draft and take one for a fee. It does the same job as a deed poll for every organisation, including HM Passport Office, whose guidance accepts a statutory declaration as evidence of a change of name. Neither document needs the other; choose whichever is easier to arrange.

Statutory declarations of name change covers who can take one and what it costs.

Marriage, civil partnership and divorce in Scotland#

The same as elsewhere in the UK for the evidence: the marriage or civil partnership certificate is enough to take a spouse's surname (changing your name after marriage), and the certificate with the decree of divorce or dissolution evidences a return to a former name. NRS says its change of name service cannot be used for a change on marriage, divorce or civil partnership, because the certificate already records the link between the names. A first name changed at the same time is a separate change, evidenced by a deed poll or statutory declaration, and that part can be recorded with NRS if your birth is registered there.

Enrolment does not apply#

Enrolling a deed poll with the High Court is an England and Wales procedure, run by the Royal Courts of Justice in London; Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man have procedures of their own. There is no Scottish equivalent, and there is no need for one: the NRS record is the Scottish way of putting a change of name on an official register, and it is optional.