Hi,

In the UK what parts of your identity are you legally allowed to
change, eg name date of birth etc.

Bye.

Hello change12,

As noted in the disclaimer at the bottom of the page, answers and
comments provided on Google Answers are general information, and are
not intended to substitute for informed professional legal advice.

The General Register Office website provides information on birth
certificates in England and Wales.  I've found the following material
on that site:

- "Under certain circumstances, it may be possible to change the
details or add to the information recorded at the time of the original
registration."

"Births -- Can I change the birth record at a later date? -- Introduction"
General Register Office
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/births/canichangethebirthrecordatalaterdate/

- "Each entry in a birth register is an historic record of the facts
as they were at the time of the birth.  If errors are discovered
later, the law allows for details to be changed or added."

"Births -- Can I change the birth record at a later date? --  How do I
correct an error?"
General Register Office
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/births/canichangethebirthrecordatalaterdate/birth3a.asp

- "A person in England or Wales may be known by any name they wish and
they will acquire a right to that name by usage and reputation.  The
Registrar General is advised that there is no reason why a name
acquired in this way should not be used for all purposes (except for
fraudulent ones). ..."

"Births -- Can I change the birth record at a later date? -- Can I use
a name different from my birth record?"
General Register Office
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/births/canichangethebirthrecordatalaterdate/birth3d.asp

See also:

"Births -- Can I change the birth record at a later date? -- Further
queries on corrections or re-registrations"
General Register Office
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/births/canichangethebirthrecordatalaterdate/birth3g.asp

I presume that you are most likely interested in information for
England and Wales.  However, in the event that you are interested in
information for Scotland and Northern Ireland, here is information on
name changes from the General Register Offices for those areas:

"Recording changes of forename(s) and surname(s) in Scotland"
General Register Office for Scotland
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/regscot/change-of-name.html

"Name Changes"
General Register Office (Northern Ireland)
http://www.groni.gov.uk/name_change.htm

For General Register Office information on the possibility of changing
other personal information on records in Scotland and Northern
Ireland, you could use the contact information indicated on those
pages.

If you need clarification of this answer to your question, please let me know.

- justaskscott


Search strategy:

Searched on Google for:

"birth certificate" site:gov.uk

Browsed General Register Office sites.

How would you change your date of birth?  Wouldn't that be painful for your mother?

Unless you are in a witness protection program, I doubt any country
will allow you to change your date of birth.

You can certainly change your name via deed poll, and can use a
nickname or a pen name without any legal action (Prince Harry is
really Prince Henry), provided there is no intent to commit fraud. I
doubt that you can change your date of birth; all you can do is
correct an error. If you undergo sexual reassignment surgery (or if a
mistake was made on your birth certificate) you can even have the
sexual designation changed, but this would be a formal legal action.

The law is pretty much the same in the United States.