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GAZETTE
MARCH 1978
NOTE ON BIRTH REGISTRATION
AND
THE USE OF PERSONAL NAMES
(This note ispublished with the kindpermission ofthe Registrar of Births,
Deaths and Marriages. It is intended as a guideline only and is not
intended to be authoritative.)
A person's legal surname is that which he uses and by
which he is known. It can be changed at will and the
assumed name then becomes the legal surname once a
right to it has been established by use and repute. In
western civilization a person generally uses, his father's
surname. Legally, however, he does not acquire any right
to that surname simply because it is his father's — he
acquires his right to it by use and repute.
Birth registration records and birth of a child to parents
who at the time of the event are known by a particular
form of surname. The main items recorded in the entry
are the date and place of birth, the Christian or given
names bestowed upon the child, the name, surname and
dwelling place of the father, the name, surname, and
maiden surname of the mother and the profession of the
father. These items record, and are intended to record, the
facts as they stood at the date of the event. Thus if a man
were a labourer when his child was born and subse-
quently became managing director of a large organ-
isation he would continue to be described as a labourer in
the child's certificate because this correctly describes the
position as it was on the day the child was born. Again, if
the father changed his surname after the birth, that
change of surname would not be recorded in the child's
birth entry because the new surname had not been
assumed on the day the child was born.
A person is entitled to use only one form of surname at
a particular period of time — if he habitually uses more
than one surname, legally speaking he would have to be
described by all of the surnames he used, e.g. Smith, alias
Jones, alias Murphy. Again, legally speaking, a change of
surname from an Irish to an English form, or vice versa,
is as much a change of surname as from Jones to Smith.
The legal considerations which underline these principles
are important and, if they were waived, would leave a
wide gap in society's defences against fraud, evasion of
responsibilities, etc.
Certificates of birth are accepted as proof of personal
identity for a wide range of administrative and legal
procedures. Consequently, people who change their
surnames, whether by adopting their former surname in a
different language or by adopting a new surname which
has no connection with their former one, may experience
some difficulties when they produce a birth certificate in
which the father's surname is in a different form. Such a
person would be well advised to prepare at the time at
which he makes the change a formal Deed Poll or
affidavit indicating that he has ceased to use his former
surname and that henceforth he intends to use and wishes
to be known by his assumed name. Such a document,
attached to a birth certificate, is acceptable for most
administrative procedures and provides an easy and
inexpensive solution for most of the difficulties likely to be
encountered by a person who changes his surname.
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