Will my Deed Poll change my birth certificate?

There are very few incidences where a birth certificate can be amended. This is due to them being considered as historical documents which were drawn up correctly at the time they were issued. Therefore a Deed Poll will not result in your birth certificate being changed in any way to reflect the name change within the Deed Poll document.

Should you wish to have your child’s forename changed, this can be done directly with the Register Office where the birth certificate was originally issued. This can only be done in instances where the new name was given to the child either in baptism or by regular use within twelve months of the birth being registered. Information on the correct forms and procedures to follow can be found at the Registry Office concerned with the birth.

With regards to changing a child's surname on their original birth certificate this is more difficult to achieve however If both parents of the child were not married at the time, and the child's birth was registered without the father being present, you can apply directly to the registry office at any time to have the birth certificate updated to include the father's details and change the child's surname to that of the father.

If the natural parents of a child marry each other at any time after the registration of their child's birth, they can apply directly to the registry office to have the birth re-registeredand the names of both the mother's and child's surname to that of the father/husband.

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