How to Legally Change Your Name in New Brunswick

In New Brunswick, you legally change your name by applying to the Registrar General through the Vital Statistics Branch, under the Change of Name Act, RSNB 2014, c. 103, if you have been ordinarily resident in the province for at least three months and are either 16 or older, are or have been married, or are a parent with lawful custody of a child.

What the Law Allows and Who Administers It

New Brunswick's legal name change process runs under the Change of Name Act, RSNB 2014, c. 103, administered by the Registrar General through the Vital Statistics Branch, in practice handled at Service New Brunswick centres. Applications are administrative, not filed with a court, in the ordinary case.

Who Qualifies

Section 4(1) sets three alternate qualifying paths, not a strict 16-plus floor for every applicant. You can apply for your own name change if you've been ordinarily resident in New Brunswick for at least three months immediately before applying, and you are 16 or older, or are or have been married, or are a parent with lawful custody of a child, regardless of age in those last two cases. New Brunswick's own government page describes the general case as "16 years or older and three months' residency," which is accurate for most applicants, but the Act's text carries the additional under-16 paths for a married or parenting applicant.

The Registrar General may still consider an application from someone who hasn't met the three-month residency test if refusing would cause hardship.

Minors. A parent with lawful custody, or the Minister of Social Development if the Minister is the child's guardian, can apply to change a child's name. The consent regime differs by the child's age: for a child 15 or younger, written consent of every parent is required, or proof of notification plus an unexercised right to object; a child who is 12 to 15 must also personally give written, witnessed consent, with the witness required to be a health professional or someone authorized to solemnize marriages.

The Process, Step by Step

Separate application booklets exist for adults and for children, available from the Vital Statistics Branch. New Brunswick's application form requires more disclosure than a typical Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island application: your current and prior-12-month addresses, occupation, full particulars of any unpardoned Criminal Code conviction, particulars of any pending court action against you, a history of prior name changes, your reasons for applying, a good-faith declaration, and a sponsor's declaration from someone who has known you for at least two years, verifying your identity. That sponsor requirement isn't something the research for this page found described in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, or Newfoundland and Labrador's materials.

If you're a married person changing your surname, the application must also name your spouse and include either their written acknowledgement of notice, a statutory declaration that you're living separate and apart, or an affidavit that the application was personally served on your spouse.

New Brunswick also has a formal, built-in objection process that the other three provinces in this comparison don't carry in the same form: a person with a substantial interest can object to an adult surname-change application within 14 days of the Registrar receiving it, and a person who was notified of a child's name-change application has 30 days to object. A prima facie objection is served on the applicant, who then has 14 days to reply, before the Registrar decides. That process can meaningfully delay a decision.

No specific processing-time figure, such as a number of weeks or months, was found on the Vital Statistics Branch's change-of-name page or in the sections of the Act reviewed for this page.

Fees and Processing Times

New Brunswick's fees, confirmed on the Vital Statistics Branch's page, are itemized rather than bundled into a single flat charge:

That $45 amended-birth-certificate charge is billed separately, unlike Nova Scotia, where the birth-record amendment appears bundled into the base application fee. Whether that $45 charge is mandatory for every name change or only if you want a fresh physical certificate wasn't confirmed in the sources reviewed for this page.

Residential school survivors and their families reclaiming a name changed by the residential school system have their fees waived, covering the legal change, the certificate, and related record amendments such as a new birth or marriage certificate; you return your old certificates to be replaced.

Record Checks and Fingerprinting

New Brunswick doesn't use a fingerprint-submission model. Its requirement is a self-obtained criminal record check: the Vital Statistics Branch's application requirements list a recent, local criminal record check, in original form, that the applicant supplies as part of the package. On top of that, section 4(2)(h) of the Act requires the applicant to disclose "full particulars of any conviction... under the Criminal Code... in respect of which the applicant has not received a pardon" directly on the application form.

No fingerprinting requirement or RCMP fingerprint-submission mechanism, parallel to Nova Scotia's section 12A, was found anywhere in the New Brunswick Act text reviewed for this page. That's a genuine, verified difference between the two provinces, not an assumption drawn from silence.

If a disclosed conviction exists, New Brunswick's Act doesn't bar the name change outright. Instead, once the change is registered, the Registrar General notifies the police authority with jurisdiction where the person resides. New Brunswick also proactively notifies the clerk of any court where the applicant disclosed a pending court action, so case records follow the new name.

Marriage and Divorce: Usage Versus a Legal Change

Assuming your spouse's surname on marriage is, again, usage-based, not an Act application, mirroring Nova Scotia's approach. The Vital Statistics Branch's page says you can bring your official marriage certificate and government photo ID to any Service New Brunswick centre to start using your new marital surname; no Registrar General application is required for that specific move.

Legally changing a married person's surname beyond simply adopting the marital name triggers the spousal-notice package described above under section 4(5). That's a notice requirement, not a consent requirement as in Nova Scotia; the Act, in the sections reviewed for this page, doesn't appear to give a spouse a right to block the change, only a right to be notified and, if they have a substantial interest, to object under the general objection process.

No provision parallel to Nova Scotia's section 7, letting a court order a name change as part of a divorce decree, was found in the New Brunswick Act sections reviewed for this page. That's flagged as an absence in the materials reviewed, not a confirmed non-existence; the ordinary Registrar General application, without the marriage-specific notice requirements that would no longer apply once divorced, appears to be the applicable route, but that inference wasn't confirmed against explicit statutory or government-page text.

Publication and Privacy

Publication in the Royal Gazette is the default on every granted application under section 10(2), with the Registrar able to dispense on three grounds under section 10(3): undue prejudice to the applicant, publication serving no useful purpose, or the applicant already being commonly known by the new name.

After the Change: Documents and Recognition Across Canada

On registering a name change, if the application disclosed a pending court action, the Registrar notifies the relevant court clerk, and the Court of Appeal registrar, so case records are updated with the new name. If a disclosed unpardoned conviction exists, the Registrar separately notifies the police authority for the area where the person resides.

The mechanics of how the underlying birth registration itself is amended sit in the Vital Statistics Act, a different statute not opened during research for this page, so this page doesn't describe that process step by step.

New Brunswick's Act doesn't address, in the sections reviewed, how a Change of Name Certificate is recognized outside the province. As with Nova Scotia, general Canadian practice treats a legally issued provincial certificate as usable elsewhere in Canada for identification purposes, but that wasn't confirmed against a New Brunswick or federal primary source for this page.

From there, use your certificate to update other identification, such as your New Brunswick driver's licence, your Social Insurance Number record with Service Canada, and your passport.

For how other provinces run this same process, see legal name changes across Canada, Nova Scotia's process, and Prince Edward Island's process. For the broader hub covering support, parenting, and property topics, visit Canadian family law.

Disclaimer: This article explains New Brunswick's general legal name change process for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice, does not provide or fill in any application forms, and cannot guarantee a specific outcome, fee, or timeline. Requirements, fees, and processing times are set by statute and regulation and can change; confirm current details with the New Brunswick Vital Statistics Branch or a licensed legal professional before applying.