What if I wanted to name my kid Vndsjkhweruihfuisduifewknuhnucvkrgnvujfgnejsgnsjxgmyjwgncyjcjwetgwetyqubjzbcxmdfasjkrfwekncjgvnjxgnfvjgncsjfcgnyjsgnzmjnxngmmnkmznknrjasgjashncujzgxnjkghukgzxjygncjsdurfwtuncjegnyjgnzjgnyjxgnczjyfnekrnknxgyjzcngkngfzufnertgefutgnsjgnrfukscnflxmietronbiomlnihnkudfgwdytrfbwtrqywqdvhxcbmgxcbeuisyukxaymxuisfhyuisdryijgxikbuhkmxhscukccxnzjkfhrweikcnufvbsxufbyseknykushmcknhgfis-Ann Junior?
I can’t remember why now, but a little while I stumbled over this article about Wolfe+585, Sr.
Also, while I can’t speak for the US government, the Russian government assigned me an official transliteration of my latin-charactered name. My name looks absolutely horrible in Cyrillic, I’m afraid.
Among my friends are Captain and Downbeat — first names given at birth and their official identities with Uncle Sugar. And lets not forget some of the various Hollywood names. To the best of my knowledge (1992 or so), the law in PA is anything goes at the discretion of the county clerk; two valid reasons for him to turn down a first name is
A) suspicion of fraud
B) attempting to incite
To give a different last name than either birth parent requires justification. Should the county clerk turn it down, petition can be made to the court.
Rules out lame paternity claims and that local skinhead who thinks Adolph Hitler Murphey would just be cute as hell.
Wasn’t Prince allowed to officially change his name that stupid symbol he made up? Unless I’m mis-remembering it, that would seem to indicate that in America, it’s not a requirement that a name be spellable in English or in any pre-existing language or symbol set.
Also, there are some places where people have only one name - Indonesia, for example, where two presidents were simply “Sukarno” and “Suharto.” Would other nations impose some sort of family name requirement on an Indonesian (or similar) immigrant or newborn?
No, he was not. Actually, he didn’t even try to make a legal name change, just did it for contract purposes in a dispute with his record company. But here at his residence in Minnesota, he remained on the voting register as Prince Rogers Nelson.
Thanks for the correction.
Just sawthis. Apparently Iceland has an approved list of names you have to use.
Worse than Exapno Mapcase?
You don’t say! See post 35.
As others have said - it varies based on jurisdiction. I know in Kentucky, the name, including family name, is whatever the parents want it to be. I know this personally because my now-ex wife named our child a different last/family name than both of us before I had a chance to review the birth certificate document, and I am in court now trying to get it changed to the one we had agreed on.
I have heard different things about Illinois but I cannot find it in the statutes.
Don’t you mean Харпо Маркс?
Did anyone happen to catch the recent article on this subject from Iceland?
If that means “Groucho Marx,” then yes.
No, it’s Harpo Marx. Groucho becomes Граучо Маркс.
Obviously I misremembered the story. Thanks!
My first name is Noah. Because this is a biblical name, there is actually a perfectly cromulent Russian version of it: Ной. The Russian Federation decided instead that I should be Ноа. I think you need to actually have some knowledge of Russian to understand just how barbaric that looks/sounds, but trust me, it does/is. 
ETA: This doesn’t get into how horrible my middle/last names are in Cyrillic. Or how confused Russians are by Anglo naming conventions. “No, really, we have three names. First and second are entirely random–my middle name happens to be my father’s first name, but it’s not a patronymic, I swear.”
Yes, neither Prince Rogers Nelson nor Sean Combs has legally changed his name.
I don’t know what the situation is in other countries, but in the United States, you don’t have to legally change your name. You can just start using whatever name you want. And people in the entertainment industry often have “professional” names that are different from their legal names. In such cases, they likely continue to use their legal names for official purposes like government purposes (taxes, passports) and financial transactions.