Son changing his surname

[Miracle29]

Hi everyone I'm looking for some advice. My ds will be 16 soon and wants to change his surname. A bit of background is his dad's never been there for him or ever paid maintenance. He has 5 children by 4 women and only has contact with any of them through his parents. 1 of them has a court order. I never went to court as the relationship became abusive the minute I was pregnant and when I left he threatened and stalked me and I was too scared to go to the police or courts. So his parents stepped in so I didn't have to have contact with him. We've done this for 15 years now and he has never changed or tried to. Now my ds is older he's starting to have his own opinions, hates how his dad is, hates his surname and won't go anywhere with him on his own as he simply doesn't trust him. His dad won't allow him to double barrel his name so as to not get rid of his name just to add mine as ds requested and he wouldn't allow it. Now ds is turning 16 he really wants to change it. My questions are...how do we go about this? Does his dad need to know legally? As I know it will cause alot of problems. Does his name change on his birth certificate? And will he ever need to use his old name again or just go by the new one. I'm supporting my son in this it's completely his choice but can't help but worry about the repercussions. Thankyou

Once he is 16, it is entirely his decision. He does not need anyone's consent to do this, nor does he have to let his father know.

The simplest way to do this is with a change of name deed. This doesn't cost anything. You can use the government's suggested wording which can be found at www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll/make-an-adult-deed-poll. It is unlikely he will need an enrolled deed poll.

His name on his birth certificate will not change. He will not have to use his old name again.

Thankyou for your reply and forgive my stupidness but what is enrolled deed poll?
If his name won't change on the birth certificate does that mean he would struggle to get passports, driving licence those sort of things as his name won't match the birth certificate thankyou again.

The change of name deed would be his proof of change of name.

An enrolled deed poll is one that is advertised in The Gazette and enrolled by the courts. This puts the new name on public record. However, it is unlikely he will need to go to the cost of doing this.

As the previous poster says, the change of name deed would prove his change of name. It would be accepted by the passport office, DVLA, etc.

My son has done this. He changed it by deed poll. In my sons case he added a surname.
He got a copy of the deed poll certificate which he needed for passport etc to be in his new name. It was a really straight forward procedure but years ago now so can't quite remember how we went about it

I changed my surname in my late teens, I stapled the documentation to a (certified) copy of my birth certificate and handed them both in if anyone needed the birth certificate for anything. It's not often you get asked if you have been known by any other names, the only one I can think of recently is a DBS check and they wanted the dates too. Probably put all my surnames down for a passport application as well but can't remember! Our marriage certificate and the parish records have both names too.

My son changed his name by deed poll. He shows his birth certificate and deed poll when he wants to get a passport or whatever.

Thankyou for your replies. I'll be having another talk with him to make sure it's definitely something he wants to do.