The law is similar here, but, here at least, passports are legal documents, and require one's legal name on them. The man in question could have changed his name by deed poll, at a cost of around $170US. The law here apparently allows for a woman to change her legal surname to that of her husband without having to do so by deed poll, and that was the problem in the case I mentioned. The gentleman assumed that the law would allow him to do the same, but it did not. I guss that prior to applying for his passport, he had just been using his wife's surname as his own, unaware that a change by deed poll would be necessary.
When I got married last year (in Manitoba) I found it a little strange but also pretty neat that either husband or wife could change their name, without a "deed poll", just using our marriage certificate as proof, and the change could include hyphenating, using both as last name, moving one to a middle name and taking the new one as last name (which is what I did), or not changing at all. But both men and women could do it. I don't know...I guess I'd just assumed the laws were more archaic than that!
