How to Start in Canada

How to Start Changing Your Legal Name in Canada

Change your legal name in Canada: the provincial vital statistics process in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec, publication and criminal-record-check rules, and the documents to update after.

Written November 2, 2026 · Edited November 7, 2026 · 11 min read

Applies in: CA

The short answer

A legal name change in Canada is a provincial process, run by the vital statistics office of the province where you live, and the rules differ in every province. There is no federal name change. You must be a resident of the province you apply in, meet its age and eligibility rules, complete the checks it requires, and pay its fee. This guide covers the four provinces with the most complete published processes — Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec — and gives check-instructions for the rest. It is a process guide only. It does not give legal advice, and if a custody dispute, a court order, or a criminal record is involved, a lawyer's advice comes before the application, not after.

First, confirm a legal change is what you need

Three situations look like name changes but are not legal name changes, and each has its own shorter route:

  • Taking a spouse's surname, or resuming a former surname. In Ontario, a person may elect to take a spouse's surname when marrying, and may resume a former surname when a marriage ends, under the Change of Name Act, without a legal name change. Alberta and British Columbia draw the same distinction. You prove the name with the marriage certificate and the election, and you update your documents from there.
  • Correcting a record. If a birth certificate spells a name wrong, or a given name was recorded incorrectly, the fix is a correction or amendment to the registration record, not a legal name change. British Columbia's child page states this distinction directly: amending a given name is a correction, and a legal name change is a different process.
  • Reclaiming an Indigenous name. Survivors of residential schools and Sixties Scoop survivors, and their descendants, can reclaim a traditional name in Alberta at no cost, and Quebec exempts residential school survivors from the change-of-name fee until June 8, 2032. Ask the province's office about the reclamation route, which may differ from the standard application.

If none of those applies and you want a new legal name, the provincial process below is the route.

Alberta

Apply through a registry agent. You must be an Alberta resident throughout the process. An applicant must be 18 or older, with exceptions for a person who is legally married, widowed, divorced, in an adult interdependent relationship, or a parent or guardian of a child. You may change your own name, your spouse's or adult interdependent partner's name with their consent, your child's name with the consent of the child if the child is 12 to 17, or a represented adult's name as their guardian.

The government fee is $120, which the registry agent's fee covers along with all name changes on one form; the registry agent's own service fee is extra and varies by agent. Every applicant 18 or older must submit a certified criminal record check, and it must be submitted to the registry agent within 30 days of the date on the check, after which it expires. Applicants 12 to 17 need a fingerprint document using electronic fingerprints only, with the RCMP confirmation letter submitted with the application; applicants under 12 need neither. You must surrender all Canadian birth certificates you hold, and surrendered Alberta birth certificates are replaced free of charge. Some applicants are ineligible: people with dangerous offender or long-term offender designations, people on the Alberta High Risk Offender Registry, and people with specified convictions under section 490.011 of the Criminal Code. Read the Information Guide for the publication position before applying; publication was not stated on the Alberta name change page.

British Columbia

Apply to the Vital Statistics Agency. You must be 19 or older, have lived in British Columbia for at least 3 months, and not be prohibited under the Name Act. Every applicant 12 or older needs a criminal record check with electronic fingerprints, and the receipt or results must be dated within 30 days of Vital Statistics receiving the application. For adults, the results are sent directly to Vital Statistics, and you include the payment receipt with the application; for youth 12 to 17, the results are mailed to the applicant, who includes the original with the application.

Processing takes about 24 weeks once the application is received, according to the adult application page last updated October 13, 2026. A fee applies, with a separate criminal-record-check payment; confirm the amount on the current application form before you apply, because no fee figure was shown on the current page. A legal change of name for a child 18 or younger is a separate process with its own form and consent rules, and the child page distinguishes it from amending a given name, which is a correction.

Ontario

Apply to ServiceOntario. You must be 16 or older and have lived in Ontario for the past 12 months. The application is the Application to Change an Adult's Name, form 11155, with a separate form for a child's name change. The adult fee is $137 under Ontario Regulation 68, the Change of Name Act fee schedule. A separate fee may apply for a child's name filed with a parent's application; confirm it on the current package, since no Ontario applicant page could be verified.

The application needs a guarantor, and the guarantor must be a person in a listed profession or a non-relative who has known you for at least 5 years, and the application must be sworn as a statutory declaration before a commissioner of oaths or notary. Notice to a spouse is required, and the Change of Name Act framework includes publication in the Ontario Gazette, with a route to request that the change not be published. The application asks criminal-record questions and includes a Requirements for a Police Record Check sheet; follow that sheet, because whether a police record check is required depends on your answers and on what the office asks for. The Office of the Registrar General's current notice states change-of-name applications are taking up to 24 weeks; check the current processing notice on the application package before promising yourself a date.

Quebec

Quebec's process starts differently: a free preliminary analysis. You submit the request, the Directeur de l'état civil analyses whether the change is admissible, and if it is, the Directeur mails you the application package. The fee is $157 for one person, including the first certificate, and $32 for a child's surname change included with a parent's change, according to the Directeur's fee table; confirm the figures on the fee page, since an older fee table showed lower amounts.

The notice of application is published on the Directeur de l'état civil website for 15 days, and publication is mandatory unless an exemption applies. A separate given-name substitution application exists, with publication exemptions for gender-identity-related changes and for children under 6 months. Residential school survivors are exempt from the fee until June 8, 2032. The Directeur's change-of-name page sets out the grounds for a change, the documents to include, and the publication and exemption rules; read it before starting, because the preliminary analysis decides whether your reason qualifies.

The other provinces and territories

Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut each run their own name change process through their vital statistics office, with their own application, fee, publication, and criminal-record-check rules. No official applicant page for those jurisdictions could be verified, so no fee, processing time, publication rule, or check requirement is stated for them here. Apply to the vital statistics office of the province or territory where you live, read its application package in full, and do not borrow Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, or Quebec figures for another province. The pattern to expect, based on the four provinces above, is a residency requirement, a fee, a guarantor or witness requirement, a criminal-record-check or fingerprint requirement for adults, and some form of publication or notice, but the details are the province's own.

After the change is granted

The name change certificate is the proof document for everything else. Update, in order: the birth certificate from the province of birth, the Social Insurance Number record with Service Canada, the passport (a name change means a general passport application, not a simplified renewal), the provincial driver's licence, and the provincial health card. Then update the Canada Revenue Agency record, banks, employers, schools, insurers, and utilities. Until each record is updated, carry the name change certificate alongside the old document. If you change your name and later marry, the marriage documents use the new legal name, and the name change certificate stays the link between the old and new names.

Related guides:

Changing your legal name in Canada, in six steps

  1. Confirm a legal change is what you needTaking a spouse's surname, resuming a former surname, or correcting a record are different processes that may not need a legal name change at all.
  2. Apply to your province's vital statistics officeEach province has its own application, fee, and eligibility rules. Alberta's government fee is $120. Quebec's fee is $157 for one person.
  3. Complete the checks the province requiresAlberta requires a certified criminal record check for applicants 18 and older. British Columbia requires a criminal record check with electronic fingerprints for applicants 12 and older.
  4. Wait for the decision and publicationQuebec publishes the application on the Directeur de l'état civil website for 15 days. British Columbia processing takes about 24 weeks once the application is received.
  5. Receive the name change certificateThe certificate is the proof document. In Alberta, surrendered Alberta birth certificates are replaced free of charge.
  6. Update every other documentSocial Insurance Number record, passport, driver's licence, health card, and tax and bank records follow the name change certificate, in that order.

Questions people ask

Do I need a legal name change to use my spouse's surname after marriage?

Usually no. In Ontario, a person may elect to take a spouse's surname on marriage, or resume a former surname after a marriage ends, without a legal name change, by using the marriage certificate and the election provisions in the Change of Name Act. Alberta's legal name change page states the same distinction: a spouse's surname can be assumed on marriage without a legal change, and a legal change is needed to create a new surname that neither spouse held. British Columbia's guide draws the same line. A legal name change is for changing your name to something new, not for using a surname you already have a right to use.

How much does a legal name change cost?

It depends on the province, and each province charges separately. Alberta's government fee is $120, paid through the registry agent, whose own service fee is extra and varies. Quebec's fee is $157 for one person, including the first certificate, with $32 for a child's surname change filed with a parent's change. Ontario's adult fee is $137, set by the Change of Name Act fee schedule. British Columbia charges a fee, with a separate criminal-record-check payment; confirm the amount on the current application form, because the fee figure was not shown on the current British Columbia page. Confirm the current fee on your province's application page before you apply, because fee schedules change and no fee figure could be verified on an official page for the remaining provinces.

Do I need a criminal record check or fingerprints?

It depends on the province and your age. In Alberta, every applicant 18 or older must submit a certified criminal record check, and it must reach the registry agent within 30 days of the date on the check, or it expires. Applicants 12 to 17 need a fingerprint document with electronic fingerprints only, and the RCMP confirmation letter goes in with the application; applicants under 12 need neither. In British Columbia, every applicant 12 or older needs a criminal record check with electronic fingerprints, and the receipt or results must be dated within 30 days of Vital Statistics receiving the application. In Ontario, the application asks criminal-record questions and includes a Requirements for a Police Record Check sheet; follow that sheet, because whether a check is required depends on your answers and on what the office asks for. Quebec's process runs a preliminary analysis before the application package is sent, and the Directeur states the checks for your case in that package.

Is my name change published somewhere?

In some provinces, yes. In Quebec, the notice of application is published on the Directeur de l'état civil website for 15 days, and publication is mandatory unless an exemption applies; the given-name substitution process has publication exemptions for gender-identity-related changes and for children under 6 months. In Ontario, the Change of Name Act framework includes publication in the Ontario Gazette, with a route to request non-publication, and [the application form](https://www.ontario.ca/page/change-name) sets out the publication and objection rules. In Alberta, read the Information Guide for the publication position before applying, because publication was not stated on the Alberta name change page. In British Columbia, the older application guide described an advertising requirement that no longer appears on the current pages; do not rely on it. If publication would put you at risk, ask the province's office about the exemption or non-publication route before you file.

Can I change a child's name?

Yes, but the rules are stricter than for an adult's own name. In Alberta, a parent or guardian may change a child's name with the consent of the other parent or guardian and, for a child 12 to 17, the child's consent, and a fingerprint document is needed for ages 12 to 17. In British Columbia, the child process is separate from the adult process, and amending a given name on a record is a correction, not a legal name change. In Ontario, a separate child application exists with its own consent rules. In every province, both custodial parents' positions matter, and a custody order can change who must consent. Read the child form for your province rather than assuming the adult form covers a child.

What do I update after the name change is granted?

Start with the documents that prove identity and status: the birth certificate from the province of birth, the Social Insurance Number record with Service Canada, the passport, the provincial driver's licence, and the provincial health card. Then update the Canada Revenue Agency record, banks, employers, schools, and utilities. A legal name change certificate is the proof document for all of them, so order enough certified copies or keep the original safe and use copies where the body accepts them. Until each record is updated, carry the name change certificate with the old document so the link between the two names is provable.

Keep going

Sources

No fee, processing time, publication rule, or criminal-record-check requirement is stated in this guide for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, or Nunavut, because no official applicant page for those jurisdictions could be verified. No Ontario applicant page could be verified either; the Ontario fee, guarantor, and statutory declaration statements rest on the application materials as summarized by the legal information sources cited here, and the current ServiceOntario application package governs. No British Columbia fee figure was shown on the current British Columbia page; confirm the fee and the separate criminal-record-check payment on the current application form. The Alberta publication position was not stated on the Alberta page ; read the Information Guide before applying.

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