Questions about name change

[Obasan]

Hi. I’ll try to keep this brief but give enough detail. Please let me know if I’ve not made it clear enough.

My niece (DN), now 15, has been raised by grandparents (my PIL) basically since birth. They obtained what they said was a residency order, I think actually child arrangement order, when DN was very young and have PR. I believe birth mother retained PR from a legal point of view but has never been primary carer or actually exercised PR.

When DN was born, the mother registered her birth with the father’s surname. When PIL got the order, they also asked the court for permission to change to their family name. This was granted and is recorded on the order. I think PIL assumed that they had permission to call DN by the family name but would still one day need changing by deed poll.

When they applied for DN’s first passport when she was around 7-8, they used the father’s name as it was on the birth certificate, but as they’d also had to send off the child arrangement order to prove their PR, the passport office contacted them to let them know that the passport would be in the family name. So what she has now is a birth certificate with father’s surname and passport with family surname and only a child arrangement order as proof of legal name change (if that is even proof/legal).

The reason that DH and I are involved is that one grandparent sadly passed away a few years ago, and the wider family have supported the other considerably since then. DH and I have significant involvement with niece, although we don’t have PR. Another relative has been helping with admin/finances etc and they believe that DN will soon have to do a deed poll to continue using family name legally as an adult. We are not sure, as DN does have her passport already with the family name.

So my questions are: is her name legally changed to the family name based on the child arrangement order? And if so, is that going to be something she needs to hold on to as an adult to prove the change? Will it matter that the birth certificate and passport don’t match? Or is a deed poll required after all?

Sorry that’s a bit long and rambling.

No she does not need to do anything else. She is already known by her new name. the order is evidence of that. The passport guidance is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/names-evidence-to-change-a-name/names-evidence-to-change-a-name-accessible

Other things she will need to do is open a bank account and get a driving license. She can use her passport number as proof of who she is when she applies for a DL. Banks should be very similar.

To be honest I'm surprised that the order was accepted without a change of name deed as the order will normally give permission to the grandparents to change the name from X to Y. Could you post the precise (anonymised) wording of the relevant paragraph from the order?

Thanks. I don’t have the order in my possession so I can’t give the precise wording, sorry, but as far as I’m aware there was no separate deed given. There’s just a paragraph alluding to the permission to change name on the order. I will ask to double check the wording when I next see person who has it.

DN currently has a bank account that is a linked under-16 account, and it was actually the fact that she’ll need her own at 16 that prompted the name change questions, so it’s good to know that the passport will be enough. She’ll definitely also apply for a driving license as soon as able.