Mea Culpa: how many times do you want to change your name by deed poll?

John Rentoul on questions of style and usage in last week’s Independent

A man changed his name to ‘Celine Dion’ by deed poll on Christmas Eve (AFP/Getty)

In an article about how the government intends to make it harder for people to change their name, we quoted from a Home Office document which gave the plural of “deed poll” as “deed polls”. Everyone has heard of changing one’s name by deed poll, but few know what it means. So thanks to Peter Elliott for pointing out that “poll” is an adjective, unusually appearing after the noun. It means a legal deed that has been cut, or polled, in two, to provide a copy.  

Strictly, therefore, the plural is “deeds poll”. That would look like a mistake to most people, so I don’t think it matters that we followed the Home Office and used “deed polls” throughout the article. If we wanted to be pedantic (and I usually do), we could have used it in the singular only, and said, for example, that the government intends to “amend the guidance so that only an enrolled deed poll is accepted as proof of a name change”. (An enrolled deed poll being one that has been enrolled, or lodged, with a court.)  

The etymology of “poll” is also interesting. It meant head in Middle English, and then to cut the head off, as in pollard, or simply to cut. Another meaning developed from the counting of heads, or the counting of people or of votes, as in an election or an opinion poll.