Instant Deed Poll Online – PDF in Minutes

A deed poll is valid once it contains the three correct declarations — that you abandon your old name, adopt your new name for all purposes, and require all persons to use your new name — and you sign it in ink in front of two independent witnesses. There is no legally prescribed form, paper, issuer or registry, and no solicitor, court or government approval is needed. Read the full process in our guide to changing your name in the UK.

GOV.UK itself publishes the model wording and confirms that “a specialist agency or a solicitor can make the deed poll for you – they may charge a fee”. Our document uses that model wording with your details merged in.

HM Passport Office, the DVLA, HMRC, UK banks, the NHS, employers and universities all accept an unenrolled deed poll you print and sign at home. A printout you then sign in ink is an original document — what HMPO rejects is a photocopy of an already-signed document, not a freshly signed printout.

For a passport you will also need one document showing your new name in use, dated within the last 12 months, such as a bank statement or payslip. See how to change the name on your passport.

You sign twice — once in your old name and once in your new name — while two witnesses, each 18 or over and independent of you (not relatives, partners or housemates), physically watch. They then sign and add their names and addresses. Print and sign three to four copies so you hold multiple originals. Never use an electronic signature: HMPO and the DVLA require wet ink.

Around 98–99% of people never need to enrol their deed poll. Enrolment adds a permanent public record in The Gazette, not extra legal validity. Read the full comparison on enrolled vs unenrolled deed polls.

In Scotland a statutory declaration is the standard name-change instrument, and deed polls are also accepted. If an organisation specifically asks for a statutory declaration, our statutory declaration of name change is £9.99.