Anyone know about name change by deed poll? Unenrolled vs enrolled.

[Howdoisawwithnosaw]

Our family (me, DH, 3 year old DD) are planning on changing our last name. We currently all have the same surname as I took his when we married and DD born after that.

I have been looking online at how to go about doing it and from what I can see I think we should be fine doing an unenrolled one as it’s accepted by the passport office and our bank etc. To me it looks like the only advantage in paying (and faffing) for an enrolled deed poll is it’s then in public record but does anyone know does that even matter? Are there some potential issues down the line if we don’t do that? Could we just do an enrolled one at a later stage in a few years if it becomes necessary for some reason?

Thanks for any help.

freedeedpoll.org.uk/

this is all you need. It’s free. Get ten or so copies each so you can send them off to organisations to change your name. Not everyone will send them back.

please don’t pay, people will say you have to but you don’t.

Thank you! I definitely won’t pay, will use that website, it’s just it seems like it’s too easy and I am a natural worrier and am concerned I’m missing an obvious pitfall of not enrolling. But since I posted I have checked every institution that I think matters and they all say unenrolled will be fine so I guess there’s no reason for concern.

I am going to pay for absolutely unnecessary fancy thick paper to print it on though as I am a bit ridiculous 😂

I just printed it at the library using whatever paper they had. But multiple copies is the way to go. I had ten but within two years was down to three. I hardly ever use them now though as I’ve told everyone, plus it was long ago.

OP did you use the above site for your 3 year old?

It says over 18's on the site, but I can't work out what is different for a childs deed poll.

Thanks

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/866773/loc022-eng.pdf