Married name change - Eastern European (Slavic)?

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Hi everyone,

So I have a bit of a dilemma at the moment and wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar.

To give some background: I am getting married soon and want to change my surname to DP's. The only issue is that his name is a Slavic one which British people would never pronounce correctly based on the spelling (the spelling in question is 'ee' - in DP's language this is pronounced more 2 short 'e's, something like 'ehh' but not exactly). His name when pronounced the 'English' way based on the spelling is a word that doesn't have the nicest connotations in English! As such I don't really want to change my name to this as I know people will always pronounce it incorrectly.

However, in his culture (and I think the same goes for a lot of Eastern European countries) the woman takes the husband's name but adds an 'a' to the end of it. I would not normally have followed this but I do think his name sounds nicer with the added 'a' - and even if British people pronounce it wrong it probably would not have the connotations as mentioned above.

My question is then, would the marriage certificate be enough proof as change of name for me if my surname is not a carbon copy of his? or would I need to change it via deed poll to incorporate the extra 'a'?

I am also wondering if this would cause any other problems later on if we are married with 'almost' the same name.

Any advice/experience in this kind of thing would be much appreciated!

That's an interesting one.
I don't think you are allowed the 'a' as a female version of his 'male surname' when marrying in England. E.g. instead of Petrova your surname will be same as his Petrov

You can change your name by deed poll to anything you want. You just need the deed poll as proof to change your name on things rather than the marriage certificate.

(Like Dawn Porter became Dawn O'Porter when she married Chris O'Dowd.)

You can actively choose to take the name of your husband with an 'a' at the end if you want to.

• but the marriage certificate won't be enough for a name change in the UK.

You can change your name to anything you like. Some places will ask for an ‘official’ deed poll but for some a witnessed signed statement saying you are now known by x name will be enough

www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll

Many thanks for your replies

It looks like Deed Poll is probably the way to go. I did assume this too but got confused as DP read on another forum that someone from his home country married here under similar circumstances and the wife took the female version of the new name without doing anything else..

Where I work there is a husband and wife from different countries, and the wife certainly has the "a" version of his name.

Perhaps the way to go is to speak to a Registrar, they should know the rules.

@MulticolourMophead Interesting. Do you know if they were married in the UK by any chance?

Good idea to check with the registrar. I was also going to contact the passport office to see what they would consider acceptable proof of a name change. Just thought I would try here first in case anyone has any personal experiences

Honestly, you can call yourself whatever you want, so long as it isn’t offensive.

Personally, I wouldn’t change my name on marriage but that isn’t what you asked.

I changed my name on marriage in a similar way to reflect my husband's cultures naming style (changed my surname and added a new middle name), I didn't need a deed poll.

When it came to changing my name I showed my wedding certificate and wrote my married name on forms as I wanted it to be. It didn't cause any problems with the banks or passport office etc.

Congratulations on your engagement.

@sunshinekids thank you for your reply. That's good to know - I would like to avoid deed poll if possible!

Is your married surname any different to your husband's or is it just the extra middle name?

It's exactly the same surname as my husband and an extra middle name now.

You can use the female version anywhere you like, just do your passport with the male version.
Only your bank and airlines will ever know that your official one is the male version