Children's name change and passports

[Bbbbbbbb2017]

I changed my two children's surnames back in Jan after it being court ordered. Everything is in their new name except passports. There is still 4 years left on them so do I have to renew them immediately or are they valid until they expire?

The passports remain valid until they expire. However, if you are travelling with your children make sure you book their tickets in their old name. If the name on the tickets does not match the name on the passport they may be refused boarding.

If you were court ordered too do so, I am not sure because by not using the name you have been ordered to use you are breaking the order.

No, the OP is not breaking the order. The order would have given her permission to change her children's names. It would not have mandated that she must do so.

Assuming the op was the applicant and not someone else? Weirdly I read it that she had been ordered to do so (maybe at the application of the father?) but I realise this is wrong after reading another POV.

"I changed my two children's surnames back in Jan after it being court ordered"

I read that as op had been ordered to change back a name she didn't have permission to change.

I read that as "back in Jan", i.e. the name change happened "back in Jan", not the OP was forced to change their name back.

No sorry I meant i applied for a name change as part of our proceedings and it was granted in January. I then changed everything but was hoping to avoid the expense of changing both of the passports until they expire anyway as they are less than a year old.

In which it’s fine, many married people (including me) change their names but only do the passports when they expire.

Interesting to read your OP back (not your fault) and realise how ambiguous our language is!