How to Legally Change Your Name in Yukon

The short answer

In Yukon, a legal name change is filed with the Office of the Registrar of Vital Statistics under the Change of Name Act. The [adult application package](<https://yukon.ca/sites/default/files/2025-06/Application for change of name of an adult.pdf>) sets the entry rules: you must be 19 or older, or married, widowed, or divorced, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and resident in Yukon for the three months right before you apply. You file the adult application form plus a required affidavit, in Whitehorse, at a community territorial agent office, or by mail, and applications are processed within six weeks.

This guide covers the process only. It gives no legal advice, and it does not decide whether you qualify. That decision sits with the Registrar.

Written November 13, 2026

Who can apply

The Registrar's applicant checklist for adults lists the criteria, and your application is considered only if you meet all of them:

• You are 19 years of age or older, or married, widowed, or divorced
• You are a Canadian citizen or permanent resident
• You are a resident of Yukon
• You have resided in Yukon for the three months immediately preceding the date of the application

An adult, for this application, is a person who is 19 years of age or older. The application itself is made under section 3 of the Change of Name Act and covers a change to your given name or names, your surname, or both. All parts of the application are mandatory, and incomplete applications will not be processed, so work from the checklist the Registrar publishes rather than from the form alone. The checklist is a working document: you do not have to submit it with your application, although you can if you wish.

A child has a separate application, made under sections 3 and 5 of the same Act, and a child means a person under 19. Do not file a child on the adult form.

The two documents at the centre of the application

The application form. Use the Application for Change of Name of an Adult. It asks for your current and proposed names and works through the registrations connected to your change, including your birth registration if you were born in Yukon.

The affidavit. Every change of name application must include the Affidavit of Qualification and Bona Fides. The affidavit confirms the applicant's eligibility and intent and is a required part of the application process. It can be completed free of charge at the Registrar's office in Whitehorse, which is a practical reason to file in person in Whitehorse if you live nearby: the affidavit step can be finished at the same counter where you drop off the package.

The checklist also calls for a copy of the front and back of one piece of valid government-issued photo identification. If the address on your identification does not match your present address, the checklist also calls for a copy of a recent utility bill, banking, or government correspondence in your name. Assemble the identification copy before you travel to file, because an incomplete package is not processed.

How to submit

Completed applications can be:

• Mailed to the Registrar's office, Box 2703, Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2C6
• Dropped off at the Registrar's office, 204 Lambert Street in Whitehorse, on the fourth floor
• Dropped off at a local community territorial agent office

Applications are processed within six weeks of being received. For questions about the checklist, the required documents, or the application itself, the office lists 867-667-5207, toll-free at 1-800-661-0408, extension 5207, and vital.statistics@yukon.ca.

Fees, as the forms state them

Yukon's published material ties its figures to the registrations rather than to a single application price, so read the numbers in that frame:

• There is a $50 fee to change your name on your birth registration, and new certificates are $10 each. New birth certificates come in short form, with only personal information, and long form, which also includes parents' information.
• The form's fee table also lists concurrent changes of name for additional family members at $17.50 each.
• If you were born in Yukon, do not have a birth certificate, and would like a search conducted to verify your birth registration, the form puts the search at a cost of $1.
• If the registrar accepts your application, you receive one original certificate of change of name and as many certified copies as you wish. All certified copies of certificates of change of name are free.
• Fees are waived if you are applying to reclaim First Nation, Inuit, or Métis ancestry. The application carries a statement for that claim, so mark it on the form rather than paying and asking afterwards.

A replacement certificate is a separate, smaller transaction. A certificate of change of name ordered later costs $10, processing can take up to 10 business days, and if no record is found the $10 fee is kept to cover administrative costs. The certificate confirms your previous name, your new legal name, and the date your name changed, and it is the document used to update identification, financial records, and other official documents.

Publication in the Yukon Gazette

Section 12 of the Change of Name Act, reproduced in the excerpts at the back of the adult application package, says that when a change of the legal name of a person has been registered under section 9, the registrar shall cause the prescribed notice of the change of name to be published in the Yukon Gazette. That wording is general: it covers a registered adult change, not only a child's. The child application package spells out one consequence in its own context: if you do not want your child's name published in the Yukon Gazette, you will need to obtain a court order before submitting the application. The adult package's excerpts do not state a court-order exemption for adults, so anyone with a safety or privacy concern should raise publication with the Registrar's office at the start, before the application is filed, rather than assuming the child-package wording carries over.

What you receive, and what to update next

On approval, the certificate of change of name is your proof document. You receive one original at no cost when your application is approved, and certified copies are free, which makes it cheap to hold copies for the institutions that ask for one. Use the certificate to update identification first, then financial records and other official documents, the same list the Registrar gives for the certificate's purpose. If you ordered new birth certificates at $10 each to match the amended birth registration, keep them with the certificate; together they show both the change and the current registration.

What the opened pages do not state

The Yukon pages and forms opened for this guide state the eligibility rules, the six-week processing time, the $50 birth registration fee, the $10 certificate price, and the $1 birth registration search, but they do not state a single standalone application fee for the change of name itself apart from those registration and certificate figures, so this guide does not present one. The adult form's own fee table does list one further figure, $17.50 for each concurrent change of name for an additional family member, and it is carried in the fees section above. The forms also do not state whether any fee is refunded if an application is refused, so this guide does not claim either way.

Related guides:

• How to Start Changing Your Legal Name in Canada — the national overview of provincial and territorial vital statistics processes, publication, and record checks.
• How to Legally Change Your Name in British Columbia — the neighbouring province's route, with a different registrar process and fee.
• How to Get a Health Card in Yukon — one of the first Yukon documents to update with your certificate of change of name.
• How to Apply for Probate in Yukon — another Yukon Registrar and court process where the name on the documents has to match.

Sources

• [Government of Yukon, Application for Change of Name of an Adult — applicant checklist and form](<https://yukon.ca/sites/default/files/2025-06/Application for change of name of an adult.pdf>) — the eligibility criteria (19 or older or married, widowed, or divorced; Canadian citizen or permanent resident; Yukon resident for the three months immediately preceding the application), section 3 of the Change of Name Act, the submission addresses in Whitehorse and by mail, processing within six weeks, the $50 birth registration fee, new certificates at $10 each, the $1 birth registration search, free certified copies of the certificate of change of name, the fee waiver for reclaiming First Nation, Inuit, or Métis ancestry, the $17.50 fee for concurrent changes of name for additional family members in the form's fee table, and the Change of Name Act excerpts at the back of the package, including section 12 (notice of a registered change of name to be published in the Yukon Gazette).
• Government of Yukon, Affidavit of Qualification and Bona Fides form — the affidavit must be included with all change of name applications, it confirms the applicant's eligibility and intent, and it can be completed free of charge at the Registrar's office.
• Government of Yukon, Order a certificate of change of name — what the certificate confirms, one certificate at no cost when an application is approved, the $10 replacement certificate fee, processing of up to 10 business days, the fee kept when no record is found, the Whitehorse office address, and the phone and email contacts.
• [Government of Yukon, Application for Change of Name of a Child](<https://yukon.ca/sites/default/files/2025-06/Application for change of name of a child.pdf>) — the separate child application under sections 3 and 5, a child defined as under 19 years of age, and the section 12 rule that legal name changes must be published in the Yukon Gazette unless a court order is obtained before applying.