How to Legally Change Your Name in Australia: State by State

Legally changing your name in Australia is ordinarily handled by your state or territory's registry of births, deaths and marriages, not a court, and the fee resets every 1 July in most jurisdictions, so a figure from a prior financial year should never be assumed current.

Information last verified on 21 July 2026 against the primary legislation and, where noted, the relevant government agency page. This page presents general legal information, not legal advice.

Jurisdiction scope: This page covers the general adult legal name change process and fees in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, as researched 21 July 2026. Fees are stated only where a currency position (FY2026-27 confirmed, or an explicit caveat) can be given; Queensland and the ACT figures are omitted rather than stated with low confidence.

The general process: a registry application, not a court order

For most adults, changing a legal name in Australia does not involve a court. Each state and territory's registry of births, deaths and marriages (the name of the agency varies: Births Deaths and Marriages in most states, sometimes folded into a broader agency such as Consumer and Business Services in South Australia or the Department of Justice in Tasmania) accepts a change of name application directly from an eligible adult, generally requiring proof of identity, evidence connecting the applicant to that state or territory (commonly birth registration in that jurisdiction, or current residency), and the applicable fee. Once processed, the registry issues a change of name certificate, which is the document used to update other records such as a driver licence, passport and bank accounts. A court-based process is generally reserved for more unusual situations, including some child name changes where parents cannot agree.

Fees confirmed for the current financial year (FY2026-27)

These four jurisdictions publish a fee that was confirmed tagged to the current FY2026-27 financial year at the time of research. A reader in any of these states should still check the relevant registry's current fee page immediately before applying, since fees can change during a financial year as well as at its start.

Fees that need a currency check before you rely on them

Victoria (Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria) publishes a change of name fee of $148.60, and South Australia (through Consumer and Business Services SA) publishes $322.00 for the standard registry application, or $144.00 where the application proceeds by a court order rather than the standard registry process. Neither state's published fee page tags the figure to a specific financial year the way New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory do. That does not necessarily mean either figure is out of date, but it does mean a reader should confirm the current fee directly on the Victorian or South Australian registry site rather than treating the figure quoted here as confirmed for FY2026-27.

Queensland and the ACT: this page does not state a fee

This page deliberately does not publish a current Queensland or Australian Capital Territory fee. A figure of $220.00 was sighted for Queensland on a page dated 26 March 2026, which predates the 1 July financial year reset most registries apply; a fee sighted before the reset is not a reliable guide to the fee that applies after it, so it is omitted here rather than restated as current. The ACT's published fee source contained an internal contradiction between a stated FY2026-27 heading and a separate line describing the figure as "correct as at 1 July 2025," which is not a reliable enough basis to publish a specific number. Queensland and ACT readers should check the current fee directly on the Queensland Government or Access Canberra site.

Residency and eligibility requirements differ by state

Every registry requires some form of connection to that state or territory before it will process a name change, commonly either that the applicant was born in that jurisdiction or that they currently live there (sometimes with a minimum period of residency). The exact residency rule for Tasmania and South Australia specifically was not confirmed in the course of researching this page and is not stated here. A reader should check the specific eligibility rule on the relevant registry's own application page before assuming they qualify, particularly if they were born interstate or overseas.

What this page does not cover

This page describes the general adult name change process only. Changing a child's name, especially where the parents do not agree, generally involves additional consent requirements and, in some circumstances, a court application, and is governed by different rules to the adult process described above. Marriage-related name changes and name changes connected to gender-affirming processes can also involve different documentation requirements at some registries. A reader in either situation should check the specific guidance published by the relevant registry rather than relying on the general process outlined here.

After the certificate: updating other records

A change of name certificate from the state or territory registry is the starting document, not the end of the process. Most other agencies and institutions, a driver licensing authority, the Australian Passport Office, the Australian Taxation Office, banks, electoral enrolment and superannuation funds, each require the applicant to separately notify them and provide a certified copy of the certificate before they will update their own records. Some of these updates carry their own fee (a passport reissue, for example, is a separate cost from the registry's change of name fee), and processing times vary by agency. Keeping the original certificate, and having several certified copies made, generally makes this follow-up process faster, since some agencies will not accept an uncertified photocopy.

Why the financial year matters for this particular topic

Most of the government fees referenced on this site do not move often. Name change fees are different: several registries explicitly reset them on 1 July, the start of the Australian financial year, as part of a broader annual schedule of government fee increases. That is precisely why this page separates confirmed FY2026-27 figures from figures that are not tagged to a financial year, and omits Queensland and the ACT entirely rather than restate an older number as if it still applied. A fee that was correct in June can be wrong in July of the same year, and a fee correct in one financial year says nothing reliable about the next one.

This page is general legal information about everyday law in Australia, verified on 21 July 2026. It is not legal advice, and it does not cover every situation. For advice about your own circumstances, consult a legal practitioner admitted in the relevant Australian state or territory.