How difficult is life when LEGAL name does not match birth certificate?

June 5, 2017 12:57 AM

For Reasons, I'm thinking of changing my small child's name, but just learned I can't amend the birth certificate, just get a "deed poll" document. How much of a problem is this?

I don't want to get into the Reasons, but assume they are good ones, but maybe not good enough if this is going to be a lifelong problem for the kiddo. Kid would not himself know the difference.

No passport yet or anything really other than the birth certificate. Name would legally be X (done via "deed poll" -- a document that changes name) though name on birth certificate would be Y. Is life going to be incredibly annoying? And emotionally, would it really bother you if the name on your birth certificate wasn't your actual name? Again, there would be a legal document saying X name has been changed to Y, but the birth certificate itself remains the same.

What am I not thinking of? THANKS!

posted by caoimhe to Grab Bag (14 answers total)

Nah. Go for it. Occasionally tedious but not a big deal. No-one but bureaucrats will know that your child's name on their birth certificate does not match their legal name. A deed poll change is not much different than changing your surname after marriage. Once your child has a passport etc, the birth certificate won't be used as ID very often.

Kid will know, because they will need to see and use their birth certificate at some stage in their, but that's not a big deal either.

If you are still OK with the original name, add the new name as a new first name and turn original name into a middle name (people can have more than one middle name). What I mean is, if you do not have to 'reject' the original first name for Reasons, then keep it. Then Kid will still be able to identify as the person on the birth certificate.

Data points. I have changed my first name through common usage, not deed poll. I still need to write my birth name occasionally and my passport is in my birth name, but the two are not too different and thus I rarely (ever?) encounter problems. A close relative however has added a whole new first name via deed poll and it doesn't seem to have caused her any problems in gaining not one, not two, but four passports of different nationalities.

You are going to be saying, dreaming, shouting and crooning your child's name for decades. Change it to one you love.

While in labor, a friend screamed through all the names she had in mind to find the one that felt right to be shouting outside in her suburban cul-de-sac for her kid to come home.
posted by Thella at 1:45 AM on June 5, 2017 [6 favorites]

Several years ago I worked at the health department -- vital records amending birth certificates.
The short answer -- get the name legally changed now, before creating a confusing mess of documents, including medical and educational records. The state health department will be able to guide you through this. I am assuming that the child in question is a U.S. citizen.

Problems that can arise -- collecting government benefits such as Social Security; collecting retirement benefits; collecting benefits as a widow(er); getting a U.S. passport; in some cases, enrollment in primary schools and applying for scholarships. Genealogists run across multiple names and spellings constantly on U.S. Census records.

Options (IANAL and this applied several years ago to Oklahoma -- seek legal advice or check with the health department in your state).

1) Use the birth certificate name and have all other records changed: Social Security, driver's license, U.S. passport, employment records particularly with regard to retirement benefits, insurance records, birth certificates for your children, adoption papers. Also, there can be problems with different names on marriage and divorce papers; there can be problems with different names on real estate and other assets.

2) Use a name other than the one on your birth certificate, such as a nickname or an abbreviated version of the name: Junior, Red for a redhead, Maggie instead of Margaret. This general usage is not applicable to legal documents such as tax returns and passports. Be careful about using the legal name on employment records since this effects Social Security benefits.

3) Get a court order that says Name A and Name B refer to the same person.
Back in the day, using a court order to clarify multiple names was one method for transgender persons with an Oklahoma birth certificate. Only the name can be legally changed -- sex at birth is currently not amended. So a transgender person stopped for a speeding ticket would show a driver's license (which is based on the birth certificate) which would show a different gender.

I have seen examples of birth certificates that were amended several times. The court order is time consuming and includes some expense (depending on the state's laws), but it saves a world of frustration in getting a passport / school enrollment / retirement benefits, which were the dominant reasons why adults pursued the legal change. Also -- get multiple copies, since some agencies like Social Security will ask for a certified copy (the original stays in the state health department).
posted by TrishaU at 2:40 AM on June 5, 2017 [4 favorites]

Our daughter is adopted. She had her original name for a few days before we started the adoption process and changed her name as part of it. Her original birth certificate had her original name on it. We've never encountered a "deed poll" in the process but changing her name was pretty painless (painless, I suppose, as compared to the rest of the adoption process). Maybe a deed poll is a matter of jurisdiction. We have a birth certificate with her new(er) name. I'd recommend a name change if the original name is bothersome or problematic.

BTW, our daughter's original name was "Candice." It's nice but kids would call her "Candy" and our choice for her name is so much better.
posted by Lord Fancy Pants at 4:20 AM on June 5, 2017

I think it depends heavily on the kid's citizenship. Peeking at your history, I'm guessing you're in the UK but have previously lived in the US (and are American?)?

If your kid is a US citizen, I would change all the US documents you can at the embassy/consulate just to be safe. It's much easier to deal with people who know what a deed poll is than to try and explain it to the DMV or whoever if he should ever live in the US.

AFAIK, in Britain, people changing their names usually do not change their birth certificates (aside from a subset of trans people), which it sounds like you have discovered. There likely will be a little friction getting a UK passport, possibly just the first time, or possibly just randomly in the future. If you change your name as an adult, you have to show that you're "using" your new name by sending bank statements and so forth. That's obviously a little meaningless for a small child, especially one who hasn't started school. Similarly, I just checked the passport instructions, and it assumes you've never changed your name when applying for a first passport, so what you're meant to do is a little murky. (I find the passport instructions to be very unclear if you're in a situation that might be construed as even mildly unusual.) I'd probably pay the money to do Check and Send or whatever it's called at the Post Office.
posted by hoyland at 4:26 AM on June 5, 2017

I'd just note that pretty much everyone who changes their name after marrying will then have a name different than their birth certificate and it's not an issue. You would want to make sure other IDs match the new name (especially the passport and other government documents/IDs) and then you should be fine. Doing it early should present fewer complications than doing it later.

For what it's worth, I can't recall using my birth certificate for anything since getting my first passport. I think I might know where it is stored, but I'm not even sure of that; it just isn't something that I have almost ever needed to use.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:14 AM on June 5, 2017

I had my name changed twice as a child (long story) and the only time it was a huge pain was getting my driver's license and confusing the hell out of the clerk with my birth certificate plus the two name change documents. A few years later, the state I was born in changed their rules and issued me a birth certificate with my legal name. And then a few years after that I got married and changed my name again and my name hasn't matched my birth certificate ever since. It has never bothered me emotionally and was really just one or two extra legal documents that my mom had to remember to bring when enrolling me in school or getting me a passport, etc.
posted by galvanized unicorn at 6:41 AM on June 5, 2017

So, I know little about the legality, but I do know changing everything but the birth certificate name has caused problems for some of my transgender friends before. I don't have specifics off the top of my head, but you may want to research on the experience of transgender people to get a feel for what you might run into.

Also... not to be super paranoid, but it might be worth considering that given the current climate towards transgender people, it's very possible that new legislation targeting transgender people could introduce legal difficulties not currently present.
posted by brook horse at 10:13 AM on June 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Name would legally be X (done via "deed poll" -- a document that changes name) though name on birth certificate would be Y. Is life going to be incredibly annoying? And emotionally, would it really bother you if the name on your birth certificate wasn't your actual name?

I am in the US. This is exactly my situation. My name at birth was Name Namey Wxqtjrstqvejjrnty and when I was four my mother changed my name to be Name Namer Lastname. I believe she legally changed her last name at the same time (our last names did not match prior to that) but I don't really know for sure.

Here are my tips:
- Do this when the child is as young as possible. My Kindergarten registration was in my original name, but my name was changed before I started school in September and it apparently caused issues.
- Don't make a secret about it. Lots of weird things happens to kids, changing their name will
- Get several *certified* copies of the paperwork (both the birth certificate and the name change) and keep them somewhere very safe.
- Honestly, its never been an issue for me -- except once. I did not have a certified/sealed/whatever copy of my birth certificate, and getting one in the post September 11th world was a massive issue. It finally took me a year and a trip to my birth city (500 miles away) to sort it out. Otherwise its basically trivia. (Note: part of the issue was that both my middle and last name had changed. Had it only been the last name, I don't think it would have been as hard.)
- Emotionally, its never been an issue. I know the reasons why it was done and I like my name better than my birth name.

So, yeah, my advice is - do it!
posted by anastasiav at 10:15 AM on June 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm trans and legally changed my name in 2015. I had to use my court order all the time to show continuity. Presumably your kid doesn't have credit cards, but your kid will need their birth certificate when they get their marriage license, their passport, and driver's license.

If the Reason does have anything to do with gender (e.g. the kid is intersex or trans, BC gender is incorrect), please get that changed now, that can become an incredible mess later. God knows what the new administration will do.
posted by AFABulous at 12:25 PM on June 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

It finally took me a year and a trip to my birth city (500 miles away) to sort it out

Oh yeah. Do this now before you move anywhere.
posted by AFABulous at 12:26 PM on June 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Of course, a few years back they were asking people to come to the polls with birth certificates if they didn't have a current driver's license. Lots of today's kids don't get driver's licenses. So, if nothing else, maybe register him/her for a passport if you're going to do this, so there's *something* out there to point to without a battle.
posted by acm at 12:56 PM on June 5, 2017

The best way to avoid using a birth certificate as ID for anything: get a passport. And if you're going to do a name change, do it as soon as possible in your kid's life before they start accumulating legal documents.

I was born in Country A, immigrated to Country B and legally changed my name (first name -> middle name, new first name) before naturalizing, then immigrated to Country C (the good ole USA) and naturalized after over a decade of attending school, living, and traveling as a foreign immigrant. I don't even know where to find my original birth certificate, which is printed in a non-Latin script with my original name. Before becoming a US citizen, I used my passport from Country B as identification for everything and had no problems.

My parents were the ones who pushed me, at age 8, to legally change my name before I got my new passport and citizenship certificate. It's made my life SO much easier to have the same common-usage (and easy to spell) name as my legal name, and changing it before getting those documents made the transition painless.
posted by serelliya at 3:27 PM on June 5, 2017

I found out when I went to change my name after getting married that the name on my birth certificate was actually That Something Mom'sMaidenName-MyLastName. On every other legal document I had, it was That Something MyLastName. It didn't come up for 28 years and while my married name change was a little tricky because of it, ultimately it was no big deal.
posted by ThatSomething at 9:54 PM on June 5, 2017

A major problem in amending birth certificates for clients was timeliness -- as in:

"My children are paying for my trip to their wedding, but I need my amended birth certificate to get a passport."
"I need to enroll my children in school for next year, but this birth certificate has the wrong spelling of our last name."
"My husband died recently, and in order to collect his pension they require legal documentation such as a birth certificate -- and I can't get one."

When I worked at the health department -- vital records, it took as long as four weeks before getting to today's stack of mailed amendment forms. That's how large the volume of mail is in the spring (passports and school enrollments were the main issues).
We had clients coming in from out of state to expedite the process (in-person consultations were processed first). But it would still take several days to go through all the steps in all the different staffed areas to permanently and legally change the birth certificate.

And this is when the client could successfully locate enough legal documentation to make simple amendments for mistakes made while filling out the forms for a birth certificate (child's name not spelled correctly, wrong birth date, wrong birth location for parent). Court orders are increasingly the answer to making the legal changes, since the documentation is examined and ruled upon by a judge, but this also takes time and money.
Note that deliberate changes to the birth certificate (not a mistake) require a court order.

So -- getting an amended and certified copy of a birth certificate in a fast, easy manner was not something I saw happening.
posted by TrishaU at 1:05 AM on June 6, 2017