One law for England and Wales#
The law on names is the law of England and Wales, and it is the same on both sides of the border. Under the common law you are known by the name you use, and a deed poll is binding because of section 1 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989, which applies in Wales as it does in England. GOV.UK's deed poll guidance draws only one line on the map: it says there are different rules if you were born in Scotland. It says nothing separate about Wales, because there is nothing separate to say.
So everything in the complete guide applies in Cardiff, Wrexham or Aberystwyth without change. Anyone aged 16 or over can make an unenrolled deed poll and use the new name straight away. GOV.UK's wording names two witnesses aged 18 or over, and warns that some organisations will not accept a witness who lives at your address or is a close relative. A child's name needs the agreement of everyone with parental responsibility, or a court order, under the Children Act 1989, which is also an England and Wales Act. Enrolment, if you want it, is an application to the King's Bench Division of the High Court, made online or by post from anywhere, for £53.05, with a notice in The Gazette.
In Welsh#
GOV.UK publishes its deed poll guidance in Welsh as well as English, and its enrolment rules treat the two languages alike: if your supporting documents, a birth certificate or marriage certificate for example, are not in English or Welsh you need certified translations, and if they are in Welsh you do not. HM Passport Office's guidance says an unenrolled deed poll has no set format or wording, so nothing rules out a deed written in Welsh or bilingually.
The practical question is who will read it. A deed poll is shown to organisations across the UK, and a bank clerk in Newcastle or a passport examiner in Peterborough may not read Welsh. A deed in English, or in both languages side by side, saves being asked for a translation of your own document. Our deeds are drafted in English; the name itself, of course, is whatever you choose.
Welsh names#
GOV.UK's rules on the name are the only limits. It must be pronounceable, it cannot include symbols, numbers or punctuation apart from a hyphen or an established form like O'Hara, it cannot be offensive, and it cannot be a title. The rules are about characters, not culture: a Welsh forename, a surname in two words in the older patronymic style, a double-barrelled surname with a hyphen or a name that reverses an anglicised spelling breaks none of them. Choose the spelling once and use exactly that spelling everywhere, because a name spelt one way on a passport and another on a bank card is treated as two names by the systems that hold them.
Where your records are#
A change of name does not alter a birth certificate, in Wales or anywhere else in the UK; the register records the birth as it happened. Births, adoptions, marriages and civil partnerships registered in Wales are held by the General Register Office for England and Wales, and copies are ordered from GOV.UK's certificate service in the usual way, with a separate process only for certificates from Scotland and Northern Ireland. HM Passport Office, DVLA, HMRC, the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Land Registry all cover Wales as part of the same service they run for England, and each accepts a deed poll in the way its own guide on this site describes. DVLA is in Swansea, which makes it the one organisation on the list that is Welsh by address.
Councils, health boards and other public bodies in Wales offer their services in Welsh, and you can deal with them about your change of name in either language; what they need to see, the deed poll and usually a document showing the new name in use, is the same.
Scotland and Northern Ireland are the exceptions#
The differences in this handbook are between Wales and England on one side and the other two nations on the other. National Records of Scotland can record a change of name against a Scottish birth entry, for a fee, and Northern Ireland's registrar can do the same for a birth registered there. Neither register exists for a birth registered in Wales, and neither is needed: a deed poll is the complete evidence. If you were born in Scotland and now live in Wales, GOV.UK applies the Scottish rules to you, and the guide to changing your name in Scotland explains what they add.
Getting a deed poll in Wales#
The service is the same everywhere in the UK. A deed poll from us costs £18.50, is drafted and checked by a paralegal, and is posted by Royal Mail the same working day you order, with a signing guide and a cover letter template for the organisations that hold your records. Sign it in front of two independent adults, and use the new name from that day.
