Legal Name Change by Deed Poll
I got my name changed today by deed poll and there was a lot of running around, but it was a fairly simple procedure so I’ll just explain how to do it here.
First thing you need is Deed Poll Paper. The handiest place to buy this is Kings Legal Stationers on Bolton Street. 5 sheets of paper cost €1. Then go to the back of Kings and use the computer there to fill out and print three documents. The first document is the actual Deed Poll, where you’ll fill in your new name, old name and witness’ details (your witness must be 18 years old,) print this document on Deed Poll paper. The second document is an Affidavit for the witness, this also is printed on Deed Poll paper. The third document is the enrollement of your Deed Poll and this gets printed on normal paper. These three documents are all available on citizens.ie website in the Deed Poll section. The computer here costs €1 per ten minutes and it didn’t charge me extra to print.
Once you’ve got everything typed up, leave the signed and written sections blank until you get to the solicitor. You can use your own solicitor or just drop into one. There’s one beside the Four Courts called Orca Print. It cost €10 there to have the Commissioner for Oaths witness my signature, my witness’ signature and sign it herself. She was very friendly and didn’t ask details of why my name was being changed.
Once the three documents are signed and one of them gets stamped, go into the Four Courts. The times for Deed Poll are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am-12:30pm. You enter to the far left of the courts through the public entrance and the security guards there (also extremely friendly) will direct you to the Central Office. Take a seat in there and then you present someone there with your birth cert, passport, photo ID and three Deed Poll documents. They’ll look at them, take two documents and return you the third (can’t remember which it was, but doesn’t really matter.) Then they’ll direct you to the Stamp Office which is the next building over. Take the third doc up there, pay €60 to get it stamped and then return it to the Central Office. Again nobody in the Central Office asked me why I was changing my name, and she was very friendly continuously using my chosen name when talking to me.
That’s it! Give them your phone number and they’ll call you in 2-3 weeks when your paperwork is ready to be collected! In total the process cost me less than €80 and took about two hours and was a very positive experience.