David Tennant and wife Georgia quietly usher in change after 14 years of marriage

David Tennant and his wife Georgia Moffett are going further than most in starting the new year afresh. The couple, who have been married for 14 years, have decided to enter 2026 with a change of surname when it comes to their business - but it's not quite what you think.

Few people know that 54-year-old David's surname at birth was actually McDonald, with 'Tennant' being a stage name chosen early on in his career. Meanwhile, Georgia, 41, is often referenced by her own maiden surname even after they walked down the aisle in 2011. 

According to the Daily Mail, the couple have formally adopted Tennant as their surname when it comes to their business, with the change officially coming into force on New Year's Day. They registered the tweak with Companies House for their business Sandyboy Limited.

The couple met on the set of Doctor Who when Georgia played David's on-screen daughter Jenny in 2008. In a notable coincidence, her father is actor Peter Davison, who played the fifth doctor from 1982 to 1984. 

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David himself held the star role as the tenth doctor from 2005 to 2010, and then briefly returned as the fourteenth doctor in 2023. The couple are parents to 23-year-old son Ty - from a previous relationship of Georgia's, whom David formally adopted - daughter Olive, 14, son Wilfred, 12, daughter Doris, 10, and six-year-old son Birdie. 

Their eldest daughter Olive is set to star alongside her father - who plays Lord Tony Baddingham - in the next series of Rivals as Camilla Baddingham. The Disney+ adaptation of late author Jilly Cooper’s book, which first aired in 2024, is due to return later this year.

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However, while it is only now that David and Georgia have tweaked their names with regard to their company, the actor previously indicated that they had already changed their names by deed poll more than a decade ago. In 2023, while appearing at New York Comic Con, he revealed that the decision applied to him, his wife and their eldest two children.

According to The Times, the star first decided to change his name shortly after finishing drama school when the UK actors' union Equity said a 'David McDonald' was already registered with them. 'Tennant' came to mind after he read an article about the Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant.

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When David started being offered parts in America after winning Doctor Who fame, he was informed that a 'David Tennant' was already signed up with the US-based Screen Actors Guild. However, he was told that if he changed his name legally, then he would be allowed to be 'David Tennant' across the pond.

Speaking on stage at the 2023 event, he explained: "I thought, 'I can’t be known as one thing on one side of the world and something else on the other, because shows I can make here come over there.' I was already making Doctor Who by then so it would have been weird to change my name again.

"Then it turned out that if it was your legal name then you don’t have to change it, so I had to make it my legal name. It was just at the time when I was adopting my son [Ty] and we were about to have my daughter and we were about to get married - all at the same time. So we all changed our names at once. The four of us became Tennants in a two-week period."