Changing your name to stay safe

Can I change my name without anyone knowing?#

Yes. GOV.UK says anyone aged 16 or over can make a deed poll and start using the new name, and it calls this an unenrolled deed poll. Its rules for an adult's deed cover the name itself, not your reasons for choosing it, and they ask for nobody else's agreement. Nothing is filed with a court or a government office, and nobody is notified. The National Archives puts it plainly: a deed poll made without a solicitor may never have been recorded anywhere except on the document itself.

So the people who know about your deed are you, your two witnesses, whoever drafted it, and the organisations you choose to show it to. The deed polls we draft are unenrolled, and our privacy policy sets out what we keep about an order and for how long.

Which ways of changing a name publish something?#

The last three are all optional. Enrolment makes almost no difference to acceptance: the exceptions are a few banks, such as Lloyds, Halifax and Santander, which accept an unenrolled deed poll only with a passport or driving licence in the new name, and Railcards, which ask for an enrolled one.

Enrolment and The Gazette

Enrolling a deed poll records it with the High Court, and The Gazette says the notice that follows is mandatory. A notice gives the dates of the deed and its enrolment, the new name and the name given up, the full address, marital status and citizenship, and anyone can search The Gazette online by name. GOV.UK says that if you have a strong reason why your details should not be published, you explain it in your application, and the judge may then allow the notice to carry just your first name or just your surname. That limits the notice; it does not prevent one.

Enrolment raises a second problem if you are married to, or in a civil partnership with, the person you need to be safe from. The court's own form guidance says you will need their written permission, and the 1994 regulations on enrolment require a married applicant or civil partner to show that notice of the application was delivered or posted to the other's last known address, as well as their consent or a good reason to do without it.

If a notice has already appeared, The Gazette treats it as a permanent public record and says it cannot change what was printed. Online, it may obscure personal details where there is evidence of a significant risk to someone's safety or health from the police, social services, a doctor or a similar body. For a notice the law required, it also needs the permission of whoever placed it, which for a deed poll is the court office. Its customer services team is where to start.

Scottish and Northern Irish birth records

If your birth was registered in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also have a change of name recorded against your birth entry. Think before you do. National Records of Scotland says that afterwards both the new and the original names appear on any new birth certificate, full or abbreviated, and GRONI's application form says the changed name will be shown on your birth certificate. In both places the law entitles any person to a copy of a birth entry, and ordering one asks for details such as the full name, the date and place of birth and the parents' names. Once a change is recorded, anyone who knows those details can order a certificate that shows your new name.

Recording is optional. If safety matters more to you than having the change on your birth record, you can leave it unrecorded and use the deed poll alone. In England and Wales the question does not arise: GOV.UK says a birth registration cannot be corrected to show something that changed afterwards, such as a new name (can I change the name on my birth certificate?).

What does my deed poll show about me?#

More than your two names. A deed poll records an address too: GOV.UK's own wording opens "I [old name] of [your address]", and ours prints the address you give when you order in its opening words. The witnesses add their own names and addresses. Anyone you show the deed to, or send a copy, sees all of it, and many organisations keep the copy on file.

That makes two choices matter. Choose witnesses you trust, because they see the whole deed as they sign it; GOV.UK warns that some organisations turn down a deed witnessed by a close relative or by someone living at your address, so friends or colleagues are usually the better choice (who can witness a deed poll?). And send copies only where they are needed, keeping the original somewhere the other person cannot reach.

In what order should I update my records?#

The usual order still works: your bank, HMRC and your council first, then your passport and driving licence, then everyone else (who to tell, and in what order). A few steps come before it and alongside it.

If you still live with the person you need to be safe from, think about timing first. Women's Aid's advice on passwords and devices is to learn the steps in advance but make the changes soon after leaving, because making them earlier could escalate the abuse. A support service can help you plan when to change anything the other person might notice.

1. Make a safety plan. Women's Aid says a safety plan helps you protect yourself and your children, and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline and local services can help you make one.
2. Find the records the other person can see. A joint bank account is the obvious one. Women's Aid notes that whoever shares it can follow its card payments and cash withdrawals, and suggests not using it, or any joint credit card, until your bank has advised you. Refuge suggests freezing joint accounts if it is safe to do so, and changing PINs and online banking passwords. Shared log-ins and location-sharing apps work the same way, on your phone and on your children's devices, and Refuge's tech safety website has guides to securing them. A new name recorded anywhere they can see would reach them too.
3. Open an account of your own, if you need one. Women's Aid says a different bank may be safer, to avoid any confusion or accidental leak of information, and that many banks have domestic abuse policies. Ask for statements online, or addressed only to you.
4. Make the deed poll. Keep it, and any copies, somewhere the other person cannot reach.
5. Tell organisations in the usual order. Give each your new contact details at the same time as your new name, so that nothing in the new name goes to an address the other person can reach.
6. Redirect your post safely. If you have moved because of domestic abuse, Royal Mail says not to apply for a redirection online or at a Post Office. Contact its customer service instead and ask for a Sensitive Redirection, which it sets up with additional safeguards.
7. Break the financial link. A joint account or a joint loan makes the two of you financial associates on your credit files. Once you share no finances, Experian says you can ask each credit reference agency to remove the link, with proof that the connection has ended. Where a mortgage is still shared, it may do so once you have lived apart for more than six months and closed everything else you share.

Where will my address appear?#

Your address often changes along with your name, and some records that hold it are public. GOV.UK says the open version of the electoral register is available for anyone to buy, and that there is a different process to register anonymously if you are concerned about your safety or the safety of someone in your household. Keeping your address off your documents covers the electoral register, Companies House, HM Land Registry and banks.

What about my children's names?#

A child's name can change only with the agreement of everyone who has parental responsibility, or a court order, and GOV.UK says you must try to reach agreement first. That stays true when the other parent is the person you need to be safe from. What changes is how the court route works. GOV.UK says you will not usually need a mediation meeting if you have evidence that you are a victim of domestic abuse, form C1A tells the court about harm, and form C8 keeps your contact details and your children's from the other side, for the court and Cafcass only.

Changing your name after domestic abuse takes you through it, including legal aid and safety at court. Specific issue orders explains the application itself, and changing a child's name when the other parent is absent covers a parent who cannot be found.

Can someone find out my new name?#

Not from an unenrolled deed poll. The new name becomes visible only through the records you update as you use it, and a few of those are public or open to searches by law. Can someone find out my new name? goes through what is public and who can look, and who can see my former name? covers the records that keep your old one.

Where can I get support?#

If you are in immediate danger, contact the police. For everything else, these organisations explain on their own websites what they offer and how to reach them, and many have a quick-exit button. If someone may be checking your phone or computer, the National Domestic Abuse Helpline suggests using a safe device, and Women's Aid explains how to cover your tracks online.

• National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge: free and confidential, 24 hours a day, with live chat and support in British Sign Language.
• Refuge: refuges, independent advocacy, and help with economic abuse and with securing your phone and accounts, for women and their children.
• Women's Aid: the Survivor's Handbook, a directory of refuges and local services in England, and the Survivors' Forum, where survivors support each other.
• Men's Advice Line, run by Respect: for men affected by domestic abuse, and open to anyone who feels it is the right service for them, including trans and non-binary people.
• Galop: support for LGBT+ people who have experienced abuse and violence, by helpline and webchat.
• Scotland: Scotland's Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline, open to anyone affected, and Scottish Women's Aid, whose local groups support women, children and young people.
• Wales: Live Fear Free, the Welsh Government's helpline, 24 hours a day by phone, live chat, text or email.
• Northern Ireland: nidirect's domestic abuse pages, and the Domestic and Sexual Abuse Helpline, for anyone aged 18 or over, 24 hours a day.

Every page that helps#

Each of these answers one part in full, from the same kinds of sources.

• Changing your name after domestic abuse
• Can someone find out my new name?
• Keeping your address off your documents
• Who can see my former name?
• Unenrolled deed poll: what it is, and how it differs from an enrolled one
• Do I need to register my deed poll?
• How to find a record of a name change
• Can I change the name on my birth certificate?
• Who can witness a deed poll?
• Who to tell after changing your name, and in what order
• Changing your name with your bank or building society
• Does changing my name affect my credit rating?
• Changing your name on the electoral register
• Can I change my child's surname without the other parent's consent?
• Specific issue orders: asking a court to decide a child's name
• Changing a child's name when the other parent is absent
• How a court decides a child's name
• Updating a child's name at school
• Changing your name at 16 or 17
• Changing your name in Scotland
• Changing your name in Northern Ireland