It is necessary to inform the institutions and companies you are associated with about the name change. Be sure to tell your employer, bank, family doctor, billers, and others about your new name. If necessary, the commercial register, land register and support payers, such as the agricultural registers and information board, must also be notified of the name change. Most public service providers, such as the social insurance board and the health insurance fund, receive data from the population register and do not need to be informed of a name change.

After you have received your identity document, you can apply to the transport administration for a driving licence, vehicle-related documents, and other documents containing your name (such as a small craft operator’s certificate, personal watercraft operator’s certificate, tachograph card, ADR training certificate, certificate of competence, locomotive driver’s licence, international driving permit, etc.) bearing your new name.

You can prove that you have changed your name with a decision to change the name, issued at the end of the proceedings. If you need a copy of the document, you can use a copy of the decision or an excerpt or an extract from the population register that you can request electronically in the e-population register or physically at the local government office of the county seat.

If you need to prove to a foreign authority that you have changed your name, ask the authority about the requirements set to the verification documents. Checking this ensures that the submitted proof is accepted in the respective country. You should also check whether the document must be officially certified.

Documents certifying a name change include:

• decision on the name change. If you no longer have the decision issued to you when you changed your name, you can apply for a new document.
  It can only be issued in Estonian;
• extract from the population register with information regarding former names.
  It can be issued in Estonian or in English. The Estonian extract bears the date of the name change and an explanation stating that the name was changed through a name change procedure. The English extract only bears the date of the name change; in other words, it does not clarify whether the name was changed through a name change procedure or due to a marriage or divorce, for example.
  These documents can be requested in the e-population register or at the office of the local government of the county seat or an Estonian embassy.
  
  If the foreign country does not accept the English extract of the population register as a document verifying the name change, you must have the document officially translated. In Estonia, this can be done by a sworn translator.
  
  In addition, it might be necessary to confirm the veracity of the document officially. Official confirmation means that an apostille is added to the document or it is legalised. In Estonia, notaries add apostilles to documents; contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for legalisation. Further information about apostilles is available on the website of the Chamber of Notaries and about the legalisation on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If you submit documents to another Member State of the European Union, then you do not need to add an apostille or have it legalised.