London, Oct 17 (ANI): A new poll has found that almost 30 percent more people officially changed their names in September as compared with the same month last year, by paying merely 33 pounds.
According to the UK Deed Poll Service, more than 60,000 people will have changed their name in 2011 by the end of the year, compared with only 197 in 2000 after which the procedure was simplified.
While some of the people have chosen bizarre names, more than 300 have become John Smith, a growing number of immigrants are anglicising their names, while married couples are "meshing" their surnames.
Michael Pugh, 29, an electrician, and his fiancee Rebecca Griffin, 28, a customer services executive, meshed their names by deed poll to become Mr and Mrs Puffin when they married last year.
"People were shocked but we just thought it would be a nice idea," the Daily Mail quoted Mrs Puffin as saying.
"We won't change it back. Our children will be Puffins too," she said.
Before 2000, people had to get a letter from a professional person such as a doctor who had known them for a set number of years, have a change-of-name deed co-signed by a solicitor or announce the change in the London Gazette.
Recently, the ease with which people can now officially change their names has attracted criticism from anti-fraud experts as hundreds of fraudsters, who have racked up huge debts, change their names to evade debt collection agencies.
Some names regarded as offensive, such as Osama Bin Laden, are not allowed. (ANI)
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