Guidance
How to show uncommon names in passports: caseworker guidance
Tells HM Passport Office staff how to show uncommon names in passports.
Documents
Details
This guidance tells HM Passport Office staff how to show uncommon names in passports, including:
- when there is a naming convention (for example, cultural traditions that say how a name must be shown)
- Welsh names that have ‘ap surname’ (son of)
- Irish and Gaelic names that customers have translated into English
- names that include ‘Junior’ prefixes or suffixes
- stage, professional and religious names
- when the customer only has 1 name
- names that include titles as part of the actual name (for example, ‘Sir David Jones’ where ‘Sir’ is the customer’s forename’)
Updates to this page
Published 23 June 2023
Last updated 21 November 2025
show all updates
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Updated the names: how to show uncommon names in passports guidance. A full list of changes can be found in the guide.
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This guidance has been updated to remove instructions telling HM Passport Office staff to refuse an application which has a name subject to trademark or copyright laws.
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First published.