Changing Your Child�s Surname: Tips to Help

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There are many reasons why parents decide to change their child’s surname. This could be due to you getting married or divorced, due to adoption of the child, or even for security reasons. If you do decide to change your child’s surname, it is important that you are aware of the process and that you know what to do. This will ensure that the name change is all above board and that you and your child do not run into issues later on down the line.

Making sure you are familiar with the process involved to change a name means you can deal with your child’s surname change with far greater ease. The process is one that can take a little time and can seem daunting at first, but you can get help with the name change and you can do it by deed poll online, which helps to make the process far simpler and more convenient. In this article, we will look at some tips to help you with the process.

Tips to Take on Board

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Naturally, when it comes to changing your child’s name, you need to ensure you follow the process correctly to ensure it is all above board and legal. To help you with the process of a successful surname change for your child, here are some valuable tips:

Make Sure You Have All Necessary Consent

When changing your child’s surname, it is necessary to have written consent from both of the legal parents or guardians where applicable. Obviously, this does not apply in cases where one of the legal parents or guardians has passed away. Whoever has legal parental responsibility for the child, whether it be the natural parents, adoptive parents, or guardians, will need to provide written consent in order for the surname change to go ahead. So, make sure you can get the consent necessary to make the change before you begin the process.

Ensure You Have the Child’s Birth Certificate Ready

Another thing you will need in order to get your child’s surname changed is the birth certificate. This document, which is issued a short while after the birth of the baby, will include a lot of vital information that is necessary for the deed poll application and for the name change to be processed. If you cannot find the original birth certificate for any reason, you will need to obtain an official copy, which you can then use in place of the original.

Apply Online for the Deed Poll

It can be quite a drawn-out process to change a name, and you will naturally want to get the process completed as quickly as possible. Fortunately, modern technology has made it much easier and more convenient to change your child’s surname than in the past. You can now apply online for the deed poll, which helps you to save time and reduces the hassle involved in making the name change.

Make Sure the Documents are Checked and Signed

Once your deed poll documentation comes through, it is essential that you read through the information thoroughly to ensure everything is accurate. This document needs to be witnessed and signed, and this will need to be done by both of the legal parents or by the legal guardians of the child. In addition, your child will need to sign the document to agree to the name change if they are aged 14 or over. Here is a great article on appointing guardians.

Contact Any Record Holders

One final thing you should do is make a list of all agencies and companies/facilities that hold records of your child. This includes schools, GP surgeries and hospitals, the local authority, the passport office, and any other record-holders. Once your child’s surname has been legally changed, you will need to advise all these record-holders about the new name so that the records can be updated accordingly.

Simplifying the Process

By going online and changing your child’s surname by deed poll, you can benefit from a faster, simplified process that will make the task a lot easier. Following the above steps will help to ensure you do everything correctly, which means that there should be no issues and problems for you to worry about in the future.

Before you make your application for the deed poll online, make sure you get any necessary paperwork ready such as the written consents and the birth certificate mentioned above. You can then speed things up even more by having all the documents you need to hand. The deed poll forms generally take a few days to come after you have made the application online, so you have time to get the necessary information together beforehand. This will further aid the smooth-running of the process.

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