No - you cannot put numbers or symbols in your legal name in the UK. A name on a deed poll must use letters of the alphabet only, with the hyphen and the apostrophe as the main accepted exceptions. Digits (1, 7, 2026), mathematical and currency symbols (&, @, £, $, %, +), emojis and other special characters are all rejected - both by the deed poll itself and by HM Passport Office, the DVLA and other organisations that have to record your name. If you love a numeric or symbolic name, the fix is simple: spell it out in words.
The official rule: letters only
There is no single “Names Act” that lists every banned character, but the practical rule applied across government is consistent and strict. Your name must be made up of letters that can be recorded in standard systems and read aloud. HM Passport Office, in particular, will not issue a passport in a name that contains numbers or symbols, because passports follow international machine-readable standards. If your passport application is refused, the deed poll behind it becomes useless - so the rule effectively binds everyone, even though a deed poll is a private document.
In day-to-day terms, that means your forename(s) and surname can contain:
- The 26 letters of the alphabet (A-Z), in upper or lower case
- A hyphen - for double-barrelled names such as Taylor-Jones
- An apostrophe - for names such as O’Connor or D’Souza
- Spaces between separate names
Everything else is, in practice, off the table. For the bigger picture of what makes a name acceptable, see our guide to choosing a name that will be accepted in the UK.
What gets rejected - and why
Here are the categories that will not make it onto a valid UK deed poll or passport.
Numbers and digits
You cannot use numerals anywhere in your name. “Agent 47”, “Blink 182”, the year “2026”, or a name like “V3ra” where a digit replaces a letter, will all be refused. The objection is not that the name is unusual - it is that a passport, driving licence or NHS record has no field designed to carry a number inside the name portion. International travel documents must be reliably machine-readable at every border, and digits inside a name break that.
Symbols and special characters
Currency signs (£, $, €), the ampersand (&), the at sign (@), percent (%), plus (+), asterisks, slashes, hashes and brackets are all rejected. So is the famous Tesla-inspired “X Æ A-12” style name - in the UK it simply could not be registered as written. These characters cause problems in databases, payment systems and document printing, and they cannot be read aloud as a name.
Emojis and pictograms
An emoji is a symbol, so the same rule applies - you cannot have a heart, a star or a smiley face in your legal name, no matter how it renders on your phone.
Accented and non-Latin letters - the grey area
Letters with accents (é, ü, ñ) and non-Latin scripts (Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese characters) sit in a separate grey zone. UK passports historically strip accents, so a name like “André” is usually recorded as “Andre”. To keep your documents consistent, it is safest to use unaccented Latin letters from the start. This is different from the numbers-and-symbols ban, but it trips people up for the same underlying reason: the systems that record your name expect plain letters.
The two exceptions that ARE allowed
The hyphen and the apostrophe are accepted because they are part of the long-established Latin-alphabet convention for writing names, and standard systems handle them.
The hyphen joins two names into one, which is how the UK records most combined surnames after marriage or for a child - for example, a child of Patel and Wright might become Patel-Wright. The apostrophe marks the traditional contraction in names of Irish, Scottish and other heritage, such as O’Brien. Note that even these have limits: you cannot start a name with a hyphen, end with one, or string together a long run of them. One hyphen and one apostrophe used naturally is the safe rule of thumb.
The workaround: spell it out in words
Here is the good news. The ban is on the characters, not the concept. If you genuinely want a name based on a number, you spell the number as a word using letters.
- “Seven” instead of “7”
- “Unit One” instead of “Unit 1”
- “Onetwoeight Two” instead of “Blink 182”
- “And” instead of the ampersand “&”
Spelled in words, these are perfectly valid names made of letters, and they will pass every check - the deed poll, the passport application and the bank. Plenty of people legally hold names like Seven or Eleven this way. The name still means what you intended; it just uses letters to get there.
Why the rules exist
It is tempting to read these limits as bureaucratic fussiness, but they are mostly practical. Your name has to travel through dozens of systems - the passport machine-readable zone at a border, your bank’s payment network, the NHS Spine, HMRC’s tax records, an airline booking, a payroll run. Numbers and symbols break or get silently stripped in those systems, which would leave your documents inconsistent and could cause you to be refused service or travel. Letters-only is the lowest common denominator that works everywhere. A name also has to be pronounceable and capable of being written by hand and read aloud - another reason emojis and stray symbols are out.
If you are weighing up a more unusual choice, it is worth knowing where the harder legal limits lie too. Some names are blocked for reasons beyond formatting - see our rundown of what names are not legal in the UK.
Change your name the right way
Once you have settled on a letters-only name that will sail through, changing it is straightforward and inexpensive. A professionally printed, legally valid unenrolled adult deed poll from UK Name Change starts at just £14.49, with same-day dispatch on orders placed before 3pm and free Royal Mail Tracked delivery. It is accepted by HM Passport Office, the DVLA, HMRC, banks, the NHS, employers and schools - the same document a solicitor would charge £150-£300+ to produce. Enrolling a deed poll at the Royal Courts of Justice (an optional £53.05 extra that publishes your new name in the London Gazette) adds no legal validity, so the vast majority of people never need it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I legally name myself “7” or “Seven”?
Not as the digit “7” - numerals are rejected. But “Seven” spelled with letters is a completely valid name and will be accepted on your deed poll, passport and everywhere else.
Why won’t the Passport Office accept symbols in a name?
Passports must conform to international machine-readable standards so they can be scanned reliably at any border. Symbols and digits inside a name cannot be encoded in that format, so HM Passport Office refuses them. A deed poll in such a name would therefore be unusable for a passport.
Are hyphens and apostrophes definitely allowed?
Yes. The hyphen (as in Taylor-Jones) and the apostrophe (as in O’Connor) are the two main punctuation marks accepted in UK names, because they are part of standard Latin-alphabet naming and systems handle them. Avoid stacking several or placing them at the very start or end of a name.
What about accented letters like é or ü?
Accents sit in a grey area - UK passports typically strip them, so “Renée” may be recorded as “Renee”. To keep all your documents consistent, it is safest to use plain, unaccented Latin letters.
Can a child have a number or symbol in their name?
No - the same letters-only rule applies to children. A child’s name change needs the consent of everyone with parental responsibility, and the name still has to be made of letters with the usual hyphen/apostrophe exceptions.
I picked an invalid name - what should I do?
Simply choose the letters-only equivalent (spell numbers as words, drop symbols) before you order. Your deed poll is printed with the exact name you supply, so getting the spelling right at the point of order means no delays with your passport or bank.
Ready to make it official?
Choose a name made of letters and you can have a legally valid deed poll in your hands within days. Trusted by 160,000+ customers, UK Name Change makes it simple. Order your adult deed poll from £14.49 today - same-day dispatch before 3pm, free tracked delivery, accepted everywhere that matters.
