A legal name change in Canada is filed with the province or territory where you live, then carried into every document that still shows the old name.
Applies in: CA
A legal name change in Canada is a provincial or territorial filing. You apply to the registrar office of the place where you live, under that place's own act, with its forms and its fee. Ontario's page states the shape that most routes share: an adult application, an age and residence test, supporting documents, and a certificate at the end that becomes the proof for every other record. Items 1 and 2 apply to everyone. Items 3 to 6 each cover a set of provincial and territorial routes: work the item for the place you live and skip the rest. Item 7 applies to everyone, after the certificate arrives. Each item names the guide it rests on. The one fee stated in this checklist is Ontario's, verified on the province's own page; every other fee is left to the guide for that place.
Done when: you know which of the two routes your situation takes: a marriage-related name change, or a legal change of name.
Ontario's change of name page keeps the two apart, and the split is the first decision in most provinces. A marriage-related change (taking or resuming a last name after marriage, divorce, separation or the death of a spouse) is one route. A legal change of name, for any other change to a first, middle or last name, is the other, with its own application. The Ontario name-change guide walks both Ontario routes; the other provincial guides on this site make the same distinction for their province.
Done when: the completed application, documents and payment are in with ServiceOntario, and the change of name certificate has arrived.
This item applies only in Ontario. The province's page states the adult route: a person 16 or older who has lived in Ontario for at least 12 months can apply, the application can be started online or using a paper form, and both processes end with printed forms and documents submitted by mail or in person. The stated cost is $137. The Ontario guide walks the forms, the consent and notice pieces for younger and married applicants, and the police record check step, in order.
Done when: the application is filed with the registrar office of the western province where you live.
This item applies only in one of the four western provinces. Each province runs its own office and its own application: the British Columbia guide, the Alberta guide, the Saskatchewan guide and the Manitoba guide each rest on that province's own registration route. The pattern matches Ontario's (age and residence test, forms, fee, certificate), and the figures and forms are each province's own, so work the one guide for the province you live in.
Done when: the application is filed with the registry office of the Atlantic province where you live.
This item applies only in one of the four Atlantic provinces. The New Brunswick guide, the Nova Scotia guide, the Newfoundland and Labrador guide and the Prince Edward Island guide each walk their province's own route. As in the west, the shape is shared and the forms, fees and office are not.
Done when: the application is filed with Quebec's civil status office, on Quebec's own forms.
This item applies only in Quebec. Quebec registers a change of name through the Directeur de l'état civil, the province's civil status registrar, and the route carries Quebec's own conditions and publication step. The Quebec guide walks that route as Quebec's own pages state it. Do not carry another province's forms into a Quebec filing; the offices do not substitute for each other.
Done when: the application is filed with the registrar office of the territory where you live.
This item applies only in one of the three territories. The Yukon guide rests on the Government of Yukon's Vital Statistics office and the territory's Change of Name Act. The Northwest Territories guide rests on the territory's registrar office in the Department of Health and Social Services. The Nunavut guide walks Nunavut's own route as the territory's pages state it. The route is Nunavut's, and it is not a copy of either neighbour's.
Done when: the health card, the driver's licence or photo card, and the other records that carry your name have each been updated on the strength of the certificate.
This item applies to everyone, in every province and territory. Ontario's page names the mechanism: the change of name certificate shows the previous and new names, and it is the document used to update personal documents such as a health card, a driver's licence or an Ontario Photo Card, while a person born in Ontario also receives a new birth certificate in the new name. Every other record (payroll, bank, school, passport) is updated the same way, one office at a time, with the certificate as proof. A name change that stops at the certificate leaves the old name live in most of the places that matter, so this round is part of the job, not an afterthought.
This checklist states one fee: Ontario's $137 adult application cost, taken from the province's own change of name page. No other province's or territory's fee is stated here. Fees, age and residence rules, and consent requirements differ across the thirteen routes and change on government schedules, so they are left to the linked guides and the offices' own pages. Processing times are likewise left to the office that holds the application.
No. A legal name change is filed with the province or territory where you live, under that jurisdiction's own act and through its own vital statistics or registrar office. Ontario's route runs through ServiceOntario and the Office of the Registrar General, and the other provinces and territories each run theirs through the office their guide names. Federal documents, such as a passport, are updated afterwards, with the provincial certificate as the proof.
Not in Ontario, and the province's own page keeps the two apart. Ontario's change of name page opens with a separate marriage-related name change route, for changing a last name after marriage, divorce, separation or the death of a spouse, and then gives the adult legal name change its own section with its own eligibility rules and forms. The provincial guides on this site follow the same split: read the guide for your province and work the route that matches your situation.
A person 16 years of age or older who has lived in Ontario for at least 12 months before applying, as the province's change of name page states it. The same page sets the added pieces: a person who is 16 or 17 needs the consent of everyone with legal custody or decision-making responsibility, a married applicant must notify a spouse or partner, and a police record check is part of the application where the page's conditions call for one. Other provinces set their own age and residence rules, and their guides carry them.
The province's change of name page states a cost of $137 for an adult name change application, and the same figure for a child name change application, with a child's application at $22 when it is submitted with a parent's name change application. Those are Ontario's figures as that page states them today. This checklist states no other province's fee: fees differ by province and territory and change on government schedules, so the guide for your province, and the office's own page, are where the current figure sits.
In Ontario, a change of name certificate showing the previous and new name, which is the document used to update other records. A person born in Ontario also gets a new birth certificate with the new name, without parental information on it. A person born in another province or territory, Quebec excepted, has a notice of the name change sent to the vital statistics office where the birth was registered, as Ontario's page describes it. The other provinces' guides describe what their office issues.
No. The certificate changes the legal name; the records that carry the name change one office at a time. Ontario's page names the first set itself: the certificate is used to update personal documents such as a health card, a driver's licence or an Ontario Photo Card. Bank accounts, payroll, school records and federal documents follow the same pattern, each on the certificate as proof. Item 7 of this checklist is that round, and it is the part people most often leave half done.