Just because you were given your name by your parents when you were born, it doesn't mean you have to stick with it forever.
As soon as you hit the age of 16, you're legally allowed to change your name by deed poll without your parents' consent.
But what should you go for?
GiftsOnline4U has analysed data from the Ministry of Justice to see the top name changes in the UK, and the results are in.
It looked at the number of people who changed their name by deed poll in the last 10 years and what name people chose when changing their name in 2019.
In 2009, just 137 names changed in a year in the UK, but in 2015 this increased dramatically when there was a huge boost to deed poll applications.
Numbers jumped from 252 name changes in 2014 to 1556 in 2015 and since then, these numbers have continued to rise, reaching 3550 in 2018.
In the last 10 years, 14,499 people have changed their name by deed poll.
GiftsOnline4U analysed the names that 2,641 people chose to use in 2019 with the top 10 widely used being:
James
Thomas
Sarah
Emma
Daniel
Sophia
Charlotte
Jack
Joshua
Jessica
James was chosen by 29 people, and Sarah was chosen by 22 people, compared to Joshua selected by 16 people and Jessica with 15.
But there were also a few more unusual names that people opted for instead, like:
- Lizard
- Blu
- St
- Long
- Luvin
- Sky
Asgar Dungarwalla from GiftsOnilne4U said: "Our study into the most popular or the most unique names chosen when changing a name by deed poll showed that people still choose more traditional names such as James or Emma.
"But it’s interesting to see how innovative we are choosing more unusual names such as Bee or Lizard.
"The main thing is that we have the choice to decide what name we would like to use and are able to change it."
If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
