Sinister: names - changing

[Coombs, Benjamin (B.J.)]

Someone in the UK who's done it
tell us how much and how.:


I can answer this one.
Last year my sister in England changed her name. The changing of her
name was as simple as signing her name. All she had to do was go to our
local family solisiters and ask them. they produced a form and she
signed it. the difficult thing was having all her mail, banks, clubs,
friends knowing she'd done it - easyier than getting a name change
through marriage. And it cost around £10 pounds.

> Why don't all the girls change their middle name to Belle and all
the boys to Sebastian.  They'll be this sudden rush at the
solicitor's offices around the world, and eventually this massive
phemomenon will reach headline news.  There'll be loads of questions:
How was it organised?  Why?  And then when our epitaphs are written,
people will say "Ah, the famous 98 B&S Sinister-listee outbreak.  I
took a degree in it.  Interesting stuff."  and it'll be like plague
victims but much nicer.

Bethey I think this is a truly brilliant idea.  I have been wanting
to ditch my middle name for ages.  Someone in the UK who's done it
tell us how much and how.

The Guidian newspaper posts a thing called Notes and Queries. Within it,
some one asked:

Are there any names that I am not allowed to use if I want to
 change my name by deed poll? Could I, for instance, call myself
 Coca Cola? Would anyone object to me being called Her Majesty
 The Queen Elizabeth the Second? 

      I AM REMINDED of a man who changed his name by deed poll to
"Yorkshire
      Bank plc Are Fascist Bastards" - and insisted on having it printed
on his
      cheques. 

      Darren Maughan, University of Warwick, Coventry
      (pousq at csv.warwick.ac.uk) 

      YOU can't change your name by deed poll (or by statutory
declaration, which
      is cheaper), whatever your solicitor and others may lead you to
believe. In law
      your name is what you are known by (legitimately including aliases
- for
      example, pen names, stage names, women using both married and
maiden
      names). A deed poll is only a formal declaration of intent, but it
has no
      relevance if you use a different name in practice. Say your name
is John Smith.
      You go into a solicitor's office and execute a deed poll
"changing" your name to
      Elvis Presley (it's happened). If, on coming out of the office,
you continue to
      sign your cheques "John Smith", your name is still "John Smith";
if you start
      signing them "Cliff Richard" then your name is Cliff Richard. Of
course, you
      need to be consistent, and the bank and the Inland Revenue will
require
      evidence that you really are the person known as what you say you
are (which
      is why deeds poll are taken, for practical purposes, as
"evidence"). There is no
      legal restriction on the name you are known by, but the use of
that name is
      subject to all the obvious restrictions on the use of language
generally: obscenity,
      fraudulent impersonation, electoral malpractice, racism,
blasphemy, libel and
      slander. So you can call yourself "Her Majesty the Queen" as long
as you don't
      pretend to be the Queen. You could probably get away with calling
yourself
      Coca-Cola (after all, you can't really be prevented from calling
yourself W H
      Smith or F W Woolworth or Ronald McDonald) provided that you
didn't do it
      by way of trade or affecting anyone else's, although I wouldn't
vouch for the
      behaviour of courts in the United States. 

      Dr J B Post, Axbridge, Somerset. 

      THE TITLES of the ancient bishoprics and deaneries of the Church
of England
      are protected by the criminal law. Under the Ecclesiastical Titles
Act - mainly
      directed at preventing a rival establishment of the English
hierarchy by the
      Catholic church - misappropriating one of these titles would be an
offence. 

      Tom Hennell, Withington, Manchester. 

      A FEW years ago I read of a man who wanted to change his name to
his
      favourite chatline number. However, his bank refused to accept it
as a signature
      for his cheque book on the basis that it was too easily forged. 

      Mark Wilkinson , Uxbridge, Middx. 

      A FEW years ago I read of a man who wanted to change his name to F
731
      HDB, claiming that it was cheaper than buying a personalised
number plate for
      his car. 

      Bob Morton, Hale, Cheshire. 

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