How to Legally Change Your Name in Alberta
Alberta's legal name change carries a $120 government fee, paid through a registry agent whose own service fee is extra. Adults need a certified criminal record check filed within 30 days of its date.
How to Legally Change Your Name in New Brunswick
To change a registered name in New Brunswick you must have lived in the province for at least three months and be 16 or older. The Service New Brunswick application requires a recent local criminal record check and, for a surname change, a long form birth certificate.
Applies in: New Brunswick
The short answer
In New Brunswick, changing your registered name is a Vital Statistics application through Service New Brunswick, open to residents of at least three months who are 16 or older. The Government of New Brunswick's change of name page is a document checklist more than a fee schedule: it requires a birth certificate or Canadian immigration documents, background information, and a recent and local criminal record check in the original, and it puts a long form birth certificate at the centre of any surname change.
This guide covers the process only. It does not give legal advice, and it does not decide consent questions, the page sets the consent and notification rules, and the office applies them.
First, the marital surname shortcut
If you simply wish to use your new marital surname, do not file this application. Bring your official marriage certificate and government photo identification to any Service New Brunswick service centre. Using a marital surname this way does not change your registered name on your birth record. The legal change below is for changing the registered name itself, a new given name, a new surname that is not a marital surname, or a child's registered name.
Who can apply
To change your registered name, you must be a resident of New Brunswick for at least three months and be 16 years or older. A parent with legal custody of a minor child may also have the child's registered name changed.
What the application requires
Identity and birth documents. You must provide a birth certificate or Canadian immigration document or documents. One rule catches surname applicants: all requests for a child's change of name, or for the last name of an adult, must be accompanied by a long form birth certificate indicating the names of the parents, as issued by the Vital Statistics Office in your province of birth. If you or your child were born in New Brunswick and you do not have this document, you may submit an additional fee of $45 to the New Brunswick office instead. A given-name-only change for an adult does not carry that long form requirement on the page, but confirm your document list with the office before filing.
Background information. The application also requires information about your background:
- your marital status
- your present and previous addresses
- your occupation
- the reason you want to change your name
- a recent and local criminal record check, in the original
- whether you have applied to have your name changed before
Order the criminal record check close to your filing date: the page requires it to be recent and local and wants the original, but does not define the window, so a check ordered too early may need to be redone.
Changing a child's name
If the child is 15 or younger, the written consent of every parent is required. If written consent cannot be obtained for the application, proof of notification to all other parents, and of their right to object to the change of name, must be provided instead.
Children between 12 and 15 must also provide written and witnessed consent to the application. The consent witness is specific in New Brunswick: a health professional, or a person authorized to solemnize marriages.
Fees, and reclaiming a name
The change of name page does not publish the application fee itself, and this guide does not carry a fee figure from outside the official page. The one figure the page gives is the additional $45 for a New Brunswick-born applicant who cannot supply the required long form birth certificate. The office can be reached by phone at 506-453-2385 (select option 4 after choosing your language), Monday to Friday between 8:15 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., excluding holidays, and by email through the contact on the Service New Brunswick page.
Residential school survivors and their families who want to reclaim a name that was changed by the residential school system can apply to have the fees waived for reclaiming that name, the legal name change including the change of name certificate, and for changes to records with the change of name, such as a new birth certificate and, if applicable, a marriage certificate. The applicant returns the old certificates, which are replaced.
After the change
The change of name certificate is the proof of your new registered name. Use it to update your New Brunswick driver's licence and identification through Service New Brunswick, your Medicare card, your Social Insurance Number record with Service Canada, your passport, and your bank, employer, and Canada Revenue Agency records. Until each record is updated, keep the certificate with the older document so the link between the two names is provable.
What the opened pages do not state
The New Brunswick page states the three-month residence and age-16 rules, the long form birth certificate requirement and its $45 substitute fee, the background information list including the recent local criminal record check, and the child consent rules. It does not publish the application fee for a change of name, a processing time, or a definition of how recent the criminal record check must be, so this guide states none of those and directs you to the office for the fee.
Related guides:
- How to Start Changing Your Legal Name in Canada — the national overview of provincial vital statistics processes, publication, and record checks.
- How to Start Getting a Birth Certificate in Canada — how to obtain the long form birth certificate a New Brunswick surname change requires.
- How to Start Applying for a Canadian Passport in Canada — updating your passport once your provincial documents carry the new name.
- How to Change Your Address in Canada — the address updates that usually travel with a name change.
- Getting Married in Canada Checklist — the marriage steps behind the marital surname route at Service New Brunswick.
- How to Report Fraud and Identity Theft in Canada — what to do if a name problem turns out to be identity misuse rather than a name change.
Changing your registered name in New Brunswick, in four steps
- Confirm you meet the residence and age rulesYou must be a resident of New Brunswick for at least three months and be 16 years or older.
- Gather the birth certificate or immigration documentsA child's change, or an adult surname change, needs a long form birth certificate naming the parents; a New Brunswick-born applicant without one can add a $45 fee instead.
- Add the background information and a recent local criminal record checkThe application asks for marital status, present and previous addresses, occupation, the reason for the change, any previous name change application, and an original criminal record check.
- File the application through Service New BrunswickFor a child 15 or younger, every parent's written consent is required, or proof that the other parents were notified and could object.
Questions people ask
Who can change their registered name in New Brunswick?
You must be a resident of New Brunswick for at least three months and be 16 years or older. A parent with legal custody of a minor child may also have the child's registered name changed.
What birth certificate does a New Brunswick name change need?
As part of the application you must provide a birth certificate or Canadian immigration documents. Every request for a child's change of name, and every request to change the last name of an adult, must be accompanied by a long form birth certificate indicating the names of the parents, issued by the office in your province of birth. If you or your child were born in New Brunswick and you do not have that document, you may submit an additional fee of $45 to the office instead.
Does New Brunswick require a criminal record check for a name change?
Yes. The application requires a recent and local criminal record check, in the original, and the Service New Brunswick page does not define how recent it must be, so ask the office before you order one.
What consent does a child's name change need in New Brunswick?
If the child is 15 or younger, the written consent of every parent is required. If written consent cannot be obtained, you must provide proof of notification to all other parents and of their right to object to the change of name. Children between 12 and 15 must also provide their own written and witnessed consent, witnessed by a health professional or a person authorized to solemnize marriages.
Do I need a legal change to use my spouse's surname in New Brunswick?
No. If you simply wish to use your new marital surname, bring your official marriage certificate and government photo identification to any Service New Brunswick service centre. That route does not change your registered name; the legal change of name process is what changes the registered name itself.
How much does a New Brunswick legal name change cost?
The Service New Brunswick change of name page does not publish the application fee. It publishes one figure: an additional $45 if you or your child were born in New Brunswick and you do not have the long form birth certificate the application requires. Confirm the current application fee with the office, by phone at 506-453-2385, option 4, Monday to Friday between 8:15 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., before you file.
Sources
- Government of New Brunswick, Change of name — the marital surname route at Service New Brunswick, the three-month residence and age-16 rules, the birth certificate and immigration document requirement, the long form birth certificate rule for child and adult surname changes with the $45 substitute fee for New Brunswick-born applicants, the background information list including the recent and local criminal record check, the child consent and notification rules with the 12-to-15 witnessed consent, the residential school survivor fee waiver, and the office phone number and hours.