Both me and my son have changed our surnames at different times . Me, because my mum was married twice and it said my mum and half sister's dad was my dad on my birth certificate. Finally changed my surname by Deed Poll at the age of 34, when I realised I was never going to be getting married to anyone and changing my surname that way. It wasn't cheap;cost about £300 I think. Then my son, who is nearly 20, decided he wanted to change his surname. He had his late father's surname, which I was more than happy about as he is close to his father's side of the family and they have been very good to us over the years. But for the last twenty odd years I have been tracing my family tree on my dad's side. My surname is O'Brien. As far as I can tell I am the last of the O'Briens in our family and the name will die out with me. My son was aware of this and a few years ago he told me he would like to keep the O'Brien name alive, [our branch of it anyway] and legally change his surname. I was delighted, but was worried how the in laws would take it. Neither of us wanted them to think it was in any way being disrespectful to the memory of his father. Went to see a solicitor. We told her and said if it could be done asap so that his college certificate being issued to him a few months later would have his new surname on. I sensed the in laws were upset; nobody said anything, but it was just a feeling I got. So I suggested a compromise to my son. That he keep his father's surname and then add mine as well, as a double barrelled surname. He actually didn't want to keep his dad's surname at all. [I suspect it was largely to do with the fact all his mates thought it was an uncool surname and even his own father never liked it much]. Anyway,because he was under 18 it took a bit of rigmarole to do it. Firstly, the solicitor had to place an advertisement in a Belfast newspaper [don't know why it was Belfast; we live 40 miles away]. The ad asked if anyone objected to the change of surname to register their opposition at our solicitor's. Like who on earth that we knew is going to be reading the small print in that particular newspaper on that particular day and object to my son changing his surname?? Anyway that, here in N.Ireland is the law. Don't know if it's the same across the water. Then we had to wait 28 days to see if anybody came forward with an objection. Quelle surprise, nobody did. As he was under 18 only a temporary change of surname was allowed. A magistrate in the local court had to oversee it and we had to both be in attendance. It was the High Court in Armagh, and we had to be there at nine o'clock sharp. [I don't have a car]. In the end had to hang around the court house for over two hours with some very dodgy looking people. We went in. He spoke to me and asked me why and said it was unusual etc. Then I had to wait outside and everyone else had to leave the room, the ushers,etc. He spoke to my son on his own for about 15 minutes. I suppose it was only right to make sure he wasn't being coerced into it. Then I had to go in again and a few more words were said. Then the solicitor told us it had been granted . Had to wait about a week for it to come through. Then when he turned 18 in Feb 2015 we had to go back to the solicitor with her fee of £350. After that it was a straightforward formality, as the main work with the High Court had already been done. The Deed Poll came through three weeks later; ten official copies of it so he could pass it our to whoever needed one in the future. Such a rigmarole, but it was important he got it changed over, in our opinion, before his BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma certificate was issued, and all future important documents. His 2 separate GCSE certificates, one AQA and one CEA, show his old surname. I wouldn't want to have to go through it all again !