Deed Poll as Documentary Evidence

The Deed Poll is documentary evidence. It documents and acts as evidence that you have changed your name. For it to be effective, and fit for purpose, it needs to be legally acceptable for the purpose of changing your name. Our Deed Poll documents are just that, legally accepted as evidence that you have changed your name. Examples of other similar documentary evidence documentation are marriage certificates, Civil Partnership Certificates, Decree Absolute Certificates and Death Certificates.

In order to change your name for any other purpose or any other reason than for civil partnership, divorce or death, you will need a Deed Poll document. In some cases even with these documents, you may still need a Deed Poll document.

If you wish to just change your name because you don’t like your current name, or you would like a cool new name, then you will need a Deed Poll document. The Deed Poll acts as documentary proof allowing you to change your name details on a passport, a bank account, driving licence etc.

Why Deed Poll documentary evidence is needed

It is certainly possible to change your name by usage, that is, you decide you want to be called by another name, you simply use that and stop using your old name. However with the rise of big brother and the increase in beaurocracy, fraud and identity theft, that is no longer possible. Now if you want to change your name you need to ensure that you have documentary evidence to proof that you have indeed changed your name. You need the Deed Poll documentary evidence to allow you to change your name on all official documents and records. If you have changed your name in the past through usage and do not have documentation showing this, or you have changed your name and lost proof of having changed your name, then we can still help you. See our section on "Replacing Lost or Missing Deed Poll Documents" under Prices And Service.

What Documents you cannot change

There are certain documents, under UK law, that as a general rule cannot be changed into your new name once they have been issued.  Examples of these documents are:

• Birth Certificate
• Marriage Certificate
• Civil Partnership
• Divorce Certificate
• Civil Partnership Dissolution Certificate
• Adoption Certificate
• Educational Certificates

These are referred to as historic documents or matter of fact documents. This is because when these documents were issued, the name information they contained was correct, it was a fact.  You cannot then go back and change them to retrospectively reflect your change of name, thereby altering the fact.

The Birth Certificate, for example, reflects your given birth name, the fact.  If you change your name then the Deed Poll document will reflect your change of name from your birth name to the new name you have chosen. One shows your original name given at birth, and the second that you have changed that name to another name of your choosing.  You cannot however change the Birth Certificate into your new name.  This is why you need to keep both the Deed Poll document and the Birth Certificate to prove your identity once you have changed your name.