A guide to changing your name because it's an administrative hassle and I wish I had some shortcuts
A deed poll is a document that marks the date you legally change your name and a promise that you’ll only use your new name. It sadly doesn’t have a lot of jazz to it because you make it yourself and then sign it. It really is that simple!
I used it to change my first and middle name. I kept my last name the same.
Before you draw up this document, you should be confident about your new name. Changing your name multiple times is a pain. A deed poll is not difficult to get, but it is still a legal document that is a declaration that you’ll stop using your old name and only use this new name. If you’re not sure, continue using your new name in other ways.
Do not pay for a deed poll. You can make one yourself online, print it, sign it, and that is it! It’s totally free.
https://freedeedpoll.org.uk/ is the website I used from a recommendation from a friend. You just fill in the form and call it quits. You do need 2 other people to sign it.
Your witnesses should be people who know you well, but who are not family members
I would certainly read this set of instructions first from the website to just ensure you’re aware of which tick boxes to tick and what type of deed poll to get.
There are two things that are exceptionally important:
Why do you want 5 copies? When you send the document, you’ll want to parallelise the process. Everyone wants an original, they’ll send it back when they’re done but its still time wasted. Not to mention if it gets damaged.
Thankfully a lot of services accept a digital copy! Which saves all the time and effort too. So you’ll want a scanned copy of the signed document so you can just send it as an image. I would recommend scanning it rather than taking a picture though as some companies get shakey about images of documents from a camera.
Get excited! This is the first step of the process ❤️