Gee, Mom and Dad. Thanks for fucking me over, 63 years in advance. A Legal Name Rant

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, my parents decided before I was born to honor both dead great-grandfathers.

Therefore, my birth certificate reads:
Cartooniverse Stephen Crane Doper

Nice. Honor, honor, honor. Problem? When applying for my first Social Security card, parents discovered that only ONE middle name could be used. Period. So, my SS card reads:

Cartooniverse Steven Doper.

No clue why. My signature as a teenager, so it seems, appears on the card sitting in front of me.

My Driver’s License reads identically, as does my US Passport. All so very problematic. I cannot get a Real I.D. I cannot alter my Passport.

I now have to get into bed with Social Security, and ask HOW to alter the name assigned to my SS #. And gosh, that’s really gonna fuck up things like my Social Security payments when I apply for them in a few years because, of course, Cartooniverse Stephen Crane Doper never paid a penny towards Social Security. Cartooniverse Steven Doper did for +/- 50 years so far.

Problemo. So, gee…thanks Mom and Dad. What a fucking mess.

Thoughts?

2

How is your predicament different than most newlywed women?

3

Yep. I go by my middle name, as the previous five generations of members of our family.

Now, due to Real ID, I have my full first, middle, and last name on all my ID. Everyone in the damn world tries to call me by my first name, which I have never used, nor do I go by, nor do I use for any official documents.

Its been fine on all documents, in all places, until things started changing in the last 5 years. It grates on my very last nerve, but there’s not much I can do about it.

4

My father changed his legal name (because he hated his first name) in his 40’s (I think, or maybe late 30’s) and never had a problem with his social security. What if you were to legally change your name to the one you have been using all these years, from the one on your birth certificate? That document, combined with your other stuff, should get you a real ID.

5

Anyone can change their name. It’s a hassle but there is something you can do about it.

6

I’m confused - if your driver’s license , Social Security card and passport all have the same name, why are you having trouble getting a REAL ID ? I seem to recall you living in NY , in which case your passport is sufficient proof of your lawful status and you don’t need your birth certificate. *. Even if you don’t live in NY, the passport should be good enough for any state. And if you don’t need to bring the birth certificate, the extra middle name shouldn’t be a problem.

You don’t actually need a REAL ID if you don’t mind using your passport whenever you fly. Or since you have a passport, maybe you’ll find it easier to get a passport card that you can carry in your wallet.

* There’s something about needing to have a full middle name on your passport rather than just an initial, which I don’t really understand because NYS issued my enhanced drivers license with only a middle initial and my passport only has my initial but my birth certificate has my full middle name.

7

A lot of people don’t have a passport.

8

I know- but the OP says he does. With the same name that’s on his license and SS card.

9

We gave both our daughters two middle names. In our defense, we didn’t know that REALID was going to become a thing 30 years later.

10

This is the easy part. I went through the process of correcting a middle name with SSA earlier this year as described in this thread:

Bottom line: Was very easy to do (of course that was before SSA staff got DOGEd). SSA actually doesn’t use your middle name as part of your identification. I go to the SSA web page and all my information is unchanged except for middle name.

Once you get the SSA to match your birth certificate the getting the Real ID should be possible, which at the same time will correct the name on your driver’s license.

Not sure about passport, but how on earth did you get a passport that DIDN’T match your birth certificate?

Back in the day you didn’t need a birth certificate to get a SS card (see my attached thread for the story of how mine got messed up - it was self-inflicted).

11

Don’t they just care about the number? They will pay your social security to number 987-65-4321 whether BillyBob paid into it and now JimBob is retired and filing for it?

12

In fact, not necessarily even that much of a hassle, but I guess some of the pricedures depend on your jurisdiction (state or country).

Some years ago I “changed” my name, but not really. All my life I’d been using a name that is spelled differently than on my birth certificate, and with the new rigorous requirements that seem to have originated after 9/11, this became a problem. So I applied for a “name change”, which was really just an official attestation that the name I’ve been using is legit. I got an official “Change of Name” certificate which can be used, among other things, to get a revised birth certificate, and the problem goes away.

My experience is in Canada, but my older brother now living in New York had the same problem. No issue getting his US citizenship under his established name and a US passport at the time, but big issue getting a new Canadian passport later on. The cross-jurisdictional issues seemed complicated but they really weren’t. A change of name always goes through your jurisdiction of residence, and in New York it has to go through the court system. He did, the change was granted, and he got his new Canadian passport.

13

My husband and I both applied for benefits recently (haven’t started getting benefits yet)/ Although a birth certificate was one of the documents we were told to have available, - we didn’t need it to apply online and it’s been three months and we haven’t been asked for any documents.

14

I’m going to be 69 in a couple of months and I have never had a passport. I have been married more than once though and after I was widowed, I just started using my maiden name again. Then I got married again. I lost my birth certificate.

I don’t even want to think about the hoops I am going to have to jump through to get a real ID. With any luck I’ll die before it becomes a problem.

I never had any problem with fixing the issue through the Social Security department during all those changes, but that was before trump and musk got their dirty hands on the institution.

Good Luck to you.

15

  1. you have a passport, so you don’t need to use your birth certificate to get real ID, or really, for anything.

  2. your ire should be addressed at the absurd requirements of real ID, not at your parents, who did a perfectly normal thing.

16

You have a passport and ID with the same name on it, why do you think you can’t get REAL ID? You don’t need a birth certificate in NY.

17

You can always get a certified copy of your birth certificate. I never had mine (my parents either never got one or didn’t save it). Got it from the county, no problem.

I changed my legal name to avoid getting called by my first name, which I dislike.

But OP, if you already have a passport, why do you need Real ID? Just use the passport.

18

I have 2 middle names. The government sometimes uses one, sometimes the other, but I had no trouble getting a Real ID. I just brought everything in.

19

My son (15 years old) has two middle names. It was no problem at all to get a social security card for him with both middle names, and later a passport.

His birth certificate shows both middle names, and the SSA just used what was shown.

20

Rules have changed over time. When i moved to this state, they only allowed one middle initial (no full middle names) on the driver’s license. When i converted my driver’s license to real ID about a year ago, they told me they could only do it if i changed the name on my license to my full name on my passport, which has two middle names. So now my driver’s license has 4 names on it.