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Changing your baby’s name after registering the birth

It happens more often than you’d think. In England and Wales you can change or add your baby’s first names at the register office once, within 12 months of registering the birth. Want to change the surname, or missed the 12 months? A child’s deed poll does it, at any age.

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The 12-month first name rule
Surnames and later changes
Scotland and Northern Ireland
Straight from the registrars’ own rules

Checked against register office guidance, National Records of Scotland, nidirect, HM Passport Office and Coram Children’s Legal Centre. Sources are listed at the end.

Updated: 30 October 2026
On this pageQuick answerThe 12-month ruleSurnames and laterUsing a deed pollScotland and NIFAQs

The quick answer

In England and Wales, you can change or add your baby’s first names within 12 months of registering the birth, by applying to the register office. You can only do it once, it costs £44, and it can’t change the surname. The birth record keeps the original name and adds the new one.

For a surname, or a first name after the 12 months, a child’s deed poll is the way to do it. Everyone with parental responsibility signs it, and it works for the passport, the GP, nursery and everyone else. Ours is £14.95 with free tracked delivery.

England and Wales

The 12-month rule for first names

Register offices in England and Wales can record a new first name for your baby once, if you apply within 12 months of the birth being registered. If your baby was christened, the minister fills in a certificate of name given in baptism. If not, you fill in a certificate of name not given in baptism, which the register office gives you. Cumberland Council: change your child’s first name

  • Time limit: within 12 months of registering the birth
  • What can change: first names only
  • How often: once
  • Fee: £44, plus any new birth certificates you order
  • What the record shows: the original name, with the new name added in a separate box

For your baby’s passport, HM Passport Office’s guidance says it needs consent from everyone with parental responsibility before it uses a first name added this way. HM Passport Office: evidence to change a name

Everything else

Surnames, and changes after 12 months

The register office can’t change a surname just because you’ve changed your mind. A birth can only be re-registered with a new surname in particular situations, such as adding the father’s details or after the parents marry. Coram Children’s Legal Centre lists them. Coram Children’s Legal Centre: changing a child’s surname

For anything else, including a first name after the 12 months, use a child’s deed poll. It can change any part of your baby’s name, first, middle or surname, and the birth certificate stays as it is. You show the two together whenever you’re asked for proof of the new name.

Step by step

Changing your baby’s name with a deed poll

Agree the new name

Everyone with parental responsibility has to agree. For most babies that’s mum, and dad if he’s married to her or named on the birth certificate. Our guide to who has parental responsibility explains.

Order the deed poll

Tell us your baby’s current and new names and both parents’ details. We prepare it with a signature space for each of you and check it before printing.

Sign it with two witnesses

Both parents sign in front of two adult witnesses who aren’t close relatives and don’t live with you. See who can witness a deed poll.

Update the passport and records

Apply for your baby’s passport with the deed poll and evidence the new name is in use, then show it to the GP, nursery and anyone else. Our guide to proof of a new name in use lists what counts.

Signed by everyone with parental responsibility, our child’s deed poll is backed by our acceptance guarantee for the Passport Office, HMRC, the NHS and other UK public bodies.

The right name, without the wait

A child’s deed poll changes any part of your baby’s name. Order by 6pm, Monday to Friday, for same-day processing.

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Elsewhere in the UK

Scotland and Northern Ireland

In Scotland, National Records of Scotland can record a change to a child’s first name made within 12 months of the birth, if you apply within 2 years of the birth, using Form 21. The fee is £40, and only one change of first name can be recorded. Surname changes use a different form. National Records of Scotland: Form 21

In Northern Ireland, the General Register Office can record one change of name for a child under 18. The parents with parental responsibility sign the form in front of a solicitor, a justice of the peace or a lay magistrate, and it costs £35. nidirect: recording a change of name

Wherever your baby was born, the Passport Office accepts a child’s deed poll signed by everyone with parental responsibility.

Your questions answered

Frequently asked questions

Yes. In England and Wales you can change or add first names once, within 12 months of registering the birth, through the register office. After that, use a child’s deed poll.

Only when the birth is re-registered, for example to add the father’s details or after the parents marry. Otherwise, a child’s deed poll changes the surname.

The register office fee for a first name change in England and Wales is £44, plus any new certificates. Our child’s deed poll is £14.95, including free tracked delivery.

With a register office change, the new first name is added and the original stays on the record. With a deed poll, the birth certificate stays as it is and you show the two together.

Everyone with parental responsibility has to agree to a child’s change of name, and the Passport Office checks for it.

It works from birth until your child turns 16. From 16, young people can sign their own deed poll.

Check the detail

Sources for this guide

Guidance and reference pages

The official rules this guide is based on, checked in October 2026.

Continue your name change

Related guides

Changing the name on a birth certificate

What can and can’t be changed.

Changing a child’s name

How a child’s deed poll works.

Your child’s passport after a deed poll

What the Passport Office needs.

Ready when you are

The right name, whenever you decide.

A child’s deed poll for your baby, prepared from your details, checked by a person and posted free for £14.95.

Start a child’s deed pollSee what’s included

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