How to change your name in Canada

After marriage

Names in Canada are provincial, and the federal offices follow the provinces. Everywhere but Quebec, a person who marries may simply assume the other spouse's surname, or a combination of both, without changing anything on paper. British Columbia's Name Act says a spouse may use the surname they had before the marriage, the surname they had at birth, or the surname of their spouse; Ontario calls it assuming a spouse's last name and changes the health card, the driver's licence and the photo card on the marriage certificate alone, for nothing; Alberta says you can keep your own last name or assume a married name and that a legal change of name is not required. Your birth certificate keeps its name — an assumed name changes no record of birth — and every office you deal with changes its own record when you show it the marriage certificate. That is the ordinary path, and this guide's marriage steps are written for it.

The marriage certificate is the document that matters, not the church or commemorative certificate and not the record of solemnization. Ontario will only put on your licence the full last name exactly as the certificate shows it, hyphen included; a person who wants part of a hyphenated name, or a surname the marriage does not link, needs the legal change below. British Columbia says the same: a first or middle name, a surname not linked by marriage, or only part of a surname, is a legal change of name.

Quebec is the exception, and it is absolute. Under the Civil Code of Québec both spouses retain their respective names in marriage and exercise their civil rights under those names (article 393), so the act of marriage carries each spouse's surname as it stands on their act of birth, and the Directeur de l'état civil answers the question "can spouses change their surname after their marriage?" with "No." A Quebec resident who wants a spouse's surname on their records has one route, the Directeur's change of name, which is granted only for a serious reason; and Service Canada will not accept a marriage certificate as proof of a family name from a Quebec resident married after 1 April 1981, wherever the wedding took place. If you live in Quebec, read the change-by-choice route rather than the marriage one.

The federal offices then follow. A passport in the new name is a new adult passport application, not a renewal, with the marriage certificate showing the last name you are asking for; Service Canada updates your Social Insurance Number record on the same certificate and says you are required by law to tell it when your legal name changes; the Canada Revenue Agency takes the change in your online account or by telephone. Do the passport first, because it is the identity document the others copy.

After divorce

Nothing changes on its own, and outside Quebec nothing needs to. If you assumed a spouse's surname and the marriage has ended, you may go back to the surname on your birth certificate, or keep the married one, and no application is needed for either: British Columbia's page says you may switch back to your birth surname at any time, Alberta says the reverse is the same process as assuming the name, and Ontario's only form for the purpose, the Election to Resume Former Surname, is for people who used a discontinued election service to change their surname legally, not for an assumed name. What changes is the evidence you show. The passport office lists a court order issued in or outside Canada, such as a separation agreement, divorce order or judgment, and a resumption of surname certificate, among the documents that put a last name on a new passport; Service Canada takes a divorce decree, certificate of divorce or decree absolute for the SIN record. So order a certified copy of the divorce order or the certificate of divorce from the court that granted it, and carry your birth certificate beside it, because some offices want to see both.

If you legally changed your name — an Ontario or Alberta change of name certificate, a British Columbia registration, a Quebec decision — the divorce does not undo it. Going back is another legal change of name, on the same provincial application and fee as any other.

A divorce granted outside Canada is recognised under section 22 of the Divorce Act if either of you was habitually resident in that country or state for at least one year immediately before the proceedings began; a divorce that does not meet that test may still be recognised under the ordinary rules of private international law, but expect a registrar to ask. Keep a certified copy of the foreign decree and, if it is not in English or French, a translation with the translator's declaration.

For any other reason

A change of name for any other reason is an application to the province you live in, and each province has its own form, fee and conditions. In every province the change is registered, a change of name certificate showing the old and new names is issued, and a birth registered in that province is amended; a criminal-record check is part of the application in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta; and the change is a public record, published in the Ontario Gazette in Ontario and on the Directeur de l'état civil's website in Quebec.

Ontario: you must be 16 or older and have lived in Ontario for at least the past 12 months. The Application to Change an Adult's Name (form 007-11155) asks your current and new names, where and when you were born, whether you are married (a married applicant gives notice to the spouse on the form), your parents' names, the reasons for the change, any previous change of name, and a set of criminal and financial questions; a yes to the criminal questions means a police record check goes in the envelope. A guarantor confirms your year in Ontario, and you sign a statutory declaration in front of a commissioner for taking affidavits. The fee is CAD 137 (2026), paid to the Minister of Finance, and the application goes by mail to the Office of the Registrar General in Thunder Bay or in person at ServiceOntario's Sheppard Avenue office in Toronto. ServiceOntario says a complete application is answered in 6 to 8 weeks, and that processing currently runs up to 24 weeks. Notice of the change is published in the Ontario Gazette unless you are transgender, First Nations, Inuit or Métis and file the request for non-publication with the application. You receive a change of name certificate and, if you were born in Ontario, a new birth certificate.

British Columbia: you must be 19 or older and have lived in BC for at least three months. The Adult Application for Change of Name (VSA 529) is a fillable PDF; it wants all your original Canadian birth certificates or, for someone born outside Canada, certified copies of a permanent resident card, citizenship certificate or permit, your BC marriage certificate if you are married in BC, a criminal record check with electronic fingerprints obtained within 30 days of the application, and a statutory declaration witnessed by a commissioner, lawyer or notary. The fee is CAD 137, plus CAD 27 for each birth or marriage search where you have no certificate (2026), and the application goes to Vital Statistics in Victoria by mail or through a Service BC office. The Agency says a legal change of name can take about 24 weeks. The certificate of change of name is mailed to you free; extra copies are CAD 27 each; BC does not issue a new birth certificate as part of the change.

Alberta: you must be an Alberta resident, 18 or older, and remain a resident until the certificate is issued. The Legal Change of Name Application is completed on the province's online forms site, printed, and taken with the original birth certificates and a certified criminal record check obtained within 30 days to a registry agent. The government fee is CAD 120 (2026), on top of the registry agent's own service fee, and the criminal record check is paid separately. A legal change of name certificate is issued for each person; surrendered Alberta birth certificates are replaced free of charge in the new name; further certificates are CAD 20 each (2026).

Quebec: the Directeur de l'état civil grants a change of name to a person 14 or older who has been domiciled in Québec for at least one year, and only if a serious reason within the meaning of the Civil Code is shown. The first paper is the Application for Preliminary Analysis for a Change of Name, on which the Directeur checks your domicile and jurisdiction and whether your birth is registered; the application for a change of name itself comes in the package the Directeur then sends. The fee is CAD 164 for a change of surname or given name for one person (in force from 31 March 2026 to 31 March 2027). Every application is published as a notice on the Directeur's website for 15 days, anyone may comment within 20 days after that, and the Directeur's 90 business days of processing run from the first day of publication; a written decision follows, and the certificate of change of name goes out 30 days after a favourable one.

What counts as a good enough reason: outside Quebec the provinces do not judge reasons — Ontario asks for them and Alberta lists names it will not register, but a name that is not obscene, misleading or a number is granted to an eligible applicant. Quebec does judge them, and a wish to carry a spouse's surname is not, on its own, the serious reason the Civil Code asks for.

If you married outside Canada

This section is for a marriage celebrated OUTSIDE Canada. If you married in Canada, it is not your path: your marriage is registered by the province where it happened and the section above is the one to read.

A marriage that was legally performed in another country is, in the words of Global Affairs Canada, usually valid in Canada, and you do not need to register it in Canada. There is no consular register of marriages and no Canadian embassy or consulate performs or attends a wedding, so there is nothing to file and no fee to pay for the marriage itself. What Canada needs is a certificate it can read: the federal offices want the marriage certificate in English or French, and if it is in another language a translation with the translator's attestation — for the passport, a translation by anyone other than a certified translator must be accompanied by form PPTC 659, the statutory declaration for translators. No apostille or legalisation is asked for by the passport office or Service Canada; a certified copy from the office that issued the certificate is the document.

The one optional registration is Quebec's. A Quebec resident may have an act of marriage made outside Québec inserted in the Québec register of civil status, free of charge, by sending the Directeur de l'état civil the original certificate and, if it is not in French, a translation by a member of the Ordre des traducteurs, terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec; the insertion lets the Directeur issue a Quebec certificate of the marriage afterwards. It changes no name — a marriage abroad no more moves a Quebec resident's surname than a marriage in Montréal does.

A marriage in the United States is the common case for this guide. A county clerk's certified copy of the marriage certificate, in English, is exactly what the passport office and Service Canada list, and a Canadian who lives in the United States applies for the new passport by mail to the Passport Program in Gatineau on the same form as at home.

One case is unsettled: an online ceremony run by an officiant in another country while you were physically in Canada. Marriage law in Canada is provincial, the provinces license officiants for ceremonies performed in the province, and no province has published a rule on a marriage solemnised by video from its soil under another jurisdiction's law. A federal office reads the certificate you present, which is an administrative act; if the marriage were ever contested, a court would decide the question for itself, and where each of you stood during the ceremony is the point a challenger would raise. If one of you was physically in the country whose certificate you hold, the ordinary rule fits without strain.

If you live in the United States

If you are a Canadian citizen living in the United States, your US records change with the US checklist: Social Security, your state licence, banks and the rest. The Canadian side is short. Your Canadian passport keeps its name until you apply for a new one, and from the United States that is the same Adult General Passport Application (PPTC 153) as at home, mailed to the Passport Program in Gatineau with proof of citizenship, identification, photos, a guarantor who holds a Canadian passport, two references and the document that shows the new name — a US marriage certificate, a US divorce order, or a US court order changing your name, each of which the passport office lists; the Program aims to answer in 20 business days plus mailing time, and the fee is the new-passport fee on the passport fees page (2026). Service Canada updates your SIN record online from anywhere on the same documents, free, and says the law requires it; the CRA takes the change in your account or by telephone if you still file. There is no provincial step, because you hold no provincial licence or health card, and a provincial change of name is not open to you: every province asks for residence, from three months in British Columbia to a year in Ontario and Quebec. If you married in the United States and live in Quebec later, the Directeur de l'état civil will insert the marriage in the Québec register free of charge, but the marriage changes no name there.

Your US records, from Social Security to your state license and the everyday accounts, change with the US checklist; it prepares each form and letter in the order the agencies check them.

Change Your Name is a self-help form-preparation service, not a law firm; this page is general information about Canada, not legal advice.