Changing first name by deed poll

gelato_cat

Hi everyone

I was just wondering if anyone has experience of the following.

I want to change my first name by deed poll. I am married and took my husband's surname.

Maiden name: Suzanne Smith
Married name: Suzanne Jones

I don't have a middle name.

What this currently means is that I am known by two names. Suzanne Smith is in my passport and on two of my bank accounts; Suzanne Jones is on my driving licence and my other bank accounts.

I want to officially change my name to Suzey Jones, this is what I am known as.

I will draw up my own deed and not enrol it.

It will say something along the lines of:

I, Suzanne Jones, of 1 High Street, Anytown, have given up my name, Suzanne Jones, and have adopted for all purposes the name Suzey Jones.

My questions are:

1) Even though I am only changing my first name, does that mean that I can no longer use my full maiden name? Will I lose the right to call myself Suzanne Smith?

2) Will changing my first name mean that I can still use the surname Smith but need to use the new first name (ie Suzey Smith and not Suzanne Smith)?

3) Has anyone drawn up their own deed, not enrolled it and had trouble getting it accepted at banks etc when trying to change their name on accounts? I will get my driving licence changed first so I at least have some form of ID with the new name on it.

For reasons I don't want to go into, I don't want to keep my first name and simply shorten it. I want to change it officially.

Thanks in advance

Suzey

TBagpuss

It's much more common to have a change of name deed than a formal, registered, deed poll, so it should not create too many difficulties.

You can call youself whatever you want, so long as it isn't done with intent to defraud, so you don't lose any 'right' to call yourself Smith. However, it can get complicated further down the line if you can't show the progression (so smith to jones is fairly easy, as you can show your maraige certificate. Suzanne to Suzey is fairly easy, as you can show your change of name deed. Suzanne Smith to Suzey Jones is more complicated as you ned both, and it becomes more confusing if you continued to use Smoth after adopting Jones)

You could decide to drop the Smith at the same time as you change your forename, and do the deed as " Suzanne Jones (also or previously known as Suzanne Smith) "

You might find it is more sensible to get a solicitor to draw up the deed for you. they can answer your questions.

You are very unlikely to have issues with the deed not being registered (the only situation i know of where you need to do a formal, registered deed poll is where you are changing name as part of trnasitioning, when I undestand you need one in order to obtain a gender recognition certificate). However, you may have probelms if you draw it up yourself if you don't use the usual wording.

pigpen

Well your passport will be changed on renewal.. and just take your marriage certificate in to the bank and change to married name.

It seems pretty pointless changing from Suzanne to Suzey.. it is the same name just a pet variant .. waste of time and money and effort and paper! If everyone calls you that anyway what difference does it make what name is on your passpost/driving licence?

missbiggles1

I don't understand what you're trying to achieve by this - lots of people abbreviate their first name without any need to formalise it. I'm afraid it just seems pointless to me.

Person_one

If the names are real, then you're also letting yourself in for a lifetime of hassle from your name being misspelt. Most people would spell it Suzie. It doesn't matter if it's just a shortening of Suzanne but could be a pain when it has to be right on all important documents/bills etc.

LameWolf

I never had any problem with changing to the preferred version of my name; I also ditched a couple of pretty ghastly middle names along the way.

The only document that refers back to my "old" name is my marriage certificate, which reads like (and I'm using fictitious names here to protect my identity )

"Ann Doris Ethel Harris, otherwise Annie Harris" so that it tied in with my birth certificate

I've used my preferred version since I was 12 years old though, so my bank account, passport and everything else was all set up with my preferred version.

mgdavid

Person_one wrote: »

If the names are real, then you're also letting yourself in for a lifetime of hassle from your name being misspelt. Most people would spell it Suzie. It doesn't matter if it's just a shortening of Suzanne but could be a pain when it has to be right on all important documents/bills etc.

I agree in all but one tiny point: most people would spell it Suzy!

takman

mgdavid wrote: »

I agree in all but one tiny point: most people would spell it Suzy!

I'm surprised people are spelling it with a "z". I would say the most common way to spell it would be Susie. Replacing the "s" with a "z" is usually an american way of spelling.

*max*

Let's just be grateful she doesn't want to spell it Soo-Zhee (or some other improbable phonetic variant).

Person_one

*max* wrote: »

Let's just be grateful she doesn't want to spell it Soo-Zhee (or some other improbable phonetic variant).

Siouxsie? :cool:

I suppose the last few posts do kind of confirm my point though!

Valli

If OP lived round here she'd have no choice, most people get their names shortened for them! I was never known by the short form until I moved here, I never tell anyone that I am "short form", nut they still do it!