I suppose that this varies from state to state, but can anyone give examples of rules limiting personal names in the USA?
When I was in the hospital after the birth of my two children (in California), I was too old that the name could only contain the 26 letters of the English alphabet, and that the state would not keep track of any accented letters I used in the name, e.g. ñ would be recorded by the state as n, ë as e, etc… The nurse showed me a copy of the law. Of course now I can’t find a cite, my search skills are week.
What other restrictions on given names are there in US law? Are the laws different between what names I give my child at birth, and what names I can change when I change names as an adult?
A few examples. Which of these would not be OK?
[ol][li]I am John Smith. I am married to a lady with the name Jane Doe. Can I legally name my son William Brown? (last name different from both parents’ last name)[/li][li]As an adult, I want to change my name to Barack Hussein Obama (famous name, living person.)[/li][li]As an adult, I want to change my name to Richard Milhous Nixon (famous name, dead person.)[/li][li]As an adult, I want to change my name to Harry Potter (famous fictional character).[/li][li]I want to name my son John Richard David William Jacob Ethan Michael Alexander William Joshua Daniel Noah Anthony Winkelried. (one first name, one last name, a bunch of “middle names”).[/li][li]I want to name my son Emily Cynthia Winkelried (girl name for a boy).[/li][li]As an adult, I want to change my name to Pablo (just Pablo, no last name).[/li][li]I am a fan of French “nobleman” names, I want to change my name to Henri Robert de Bussy - can I have a last name of “de Bussy”?[/li][li]I am a fan of Monty Python, I want to change my name to Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nürnburger-bratwustle-gerspurten-mitz-weimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shönedanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm. Is that name too long? Is there a limit on name lengths?[/li][/ol]
In general, you can choose any name you want. In addition, you can unofficially use any name you wish as long as there’s no intent to defraud.
I’d say the issue with accented letter is that the state’s computers didn’t have the ASCII code for them, not a legal issue. If you chose to write the name with an accent, it’d be fine.
For those you’ve listed.
Not sure, but you could probably do it.
Generally allowed, as long as you’re not pretending to be that person.
Allowed.
Allowed, though you could have trouble if you did it for a use that would infringe on trademarks (for instance, you couldn’t use “The Harry Potter School of Wizardry” without permission, even if it is your name. In any case, though, that’s a trademark issue, not a name issue.)
OK. See Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish
OK. See Leslie Neilsen or Gail Harris, for instance.
May be more difficult – forms usually require a second name – but you can use Pablo as a professional name. Madonna and Prince do fine with it.
Perfectly fine. US doesn’t care about noble names.
There may be a limit to how big a name can be put into a database, but I don’t think there’s any legal restriction.
Not restricted by law, but from my experience with government computer systems, be prepared for some difficulties with these.
Probably won’t be accepted by most clerks of court. And you can expect to see some government records with “Pablo Pablo”, “NFI Pablo”, or other variations.
“de Bussy” is fine, but don’t be surprised to see it as “Debussy”, or even “Bussy” with “de” treated as a middle name or a suffix on your first name. On government records, credit cards, bank records, voter files, etc. And when your drivers license says your name is “Bussy” but you are trying to withdraw money from a bank account for “Debussy”, you can expect some hassle from the teller.
As to item #7, a guy I know (in Colorado) uses only a single name. That’s how it is on his driver’s license, which I’ve seen. It sounds like a last name, but he goes by only that, legally.
Accented letters are just too much for clerks to deal with. They also don’t deal well with capitals, and your driver’s license in any case will be in all caps (so there might not be room for accent marks). Also I know a MacDonald who ended up as Mac Donald on his driver’s license, which was not a problem until recently when he tried to get on an airplane having made the reservation as MacDonald.
Whatever you use as a middle name, if it has more than 6 letters it’s going to get truncated on many official documents. I think they give you more for a first & last name. Or, if there are more than one middle name, expect for them to get run together and otherwise botched.
A co-worker of mine mentioned that she knew a woman who changed both 1st and last names after she got married. She did say that it was an enormous hassle, much moreso than for women who just change their last name after marriage, because IIRC the federal government had to get involved. FBI maybe? This was before 9/11, so it’s quite likely that restrictions are even tighter now - I imagine Homeland Security would like to be looped in - but I doubt very much that it’s completely impossible or illegal.
I am blessed with a surname of the form “van Surname”, and I can confirm that multiple word surnames are a pain in the neck in the United States (not so in my native South Africa, where they are common enough). The federal government is fine, and the IRS, Social Security, USCIS, etc handle this fine. State government is all over the place (generally i get “Vansurname” or “Surname” or “Van-Surname”), as are private companies. Checking into a flight is usually annoying, and I have to play guess-the-variation-on-my-name every time with their websites or airport kiosks. Luckily an airline hasn’t gone with “Surname” yet on a boarding pass, which wouldn’t match any form of ID I carry. If they give me “VAN SURNAME” (matches my green card) or “VANSURNAME” (matches my drivers license), I’m good.
The Selective Service System is not set up to deal with men with hypenated last names. A friend of mine in high school has a name like John Doe-Smith, and was registered with the SSS as John Doesmith. That pissed him off almost as much as the fact they he was registered in the first place. He also got on one of the gym teacher’s (all the boys’ gym teacher called us by out lastnames only) shitlist because he refused to tell him which half of his last name he got from his father so he could call him by his “proper name”. :rolleyes:
I had a co-worker a few years back who had legally changed his name to a single word. That’s what was on his driver’s license. His credit card had the same name listed twice.
When my second child was born in Switzerland (I think AW is Swiss, right) we got some rules about permitted names (Karl Marx not allowed, I remember), family names not allowed as first names (unless you were in Graubunden, where it was traditional). The rules explicitly excluded non-Swiss, however.
We had an Indonesian grad student who, in their tradition, had only one name. She had endless trouble making that work. I notice that Megawati goes by the name Megawati Sukarnoputri, which is obviously a patronymic since her father was Sukarno and putri is close enough to the IE root for daughter to convince me (and yes, Indonesian is an IE language).
Now in the US you can do pretty much do what you like. I never heard of the feds getting involved. You can change your name legally or informally (mine was changed informally). The only problem with a legal name change is that a judge can deny it (I know an instance) for any reason that strikes his fancy. In the case I know, the judge himself had a long difficult name and didn’t consider sufficient reason to change it.
The only general rule I am aware of (this in Pennsylvania and probably all other common-law states) is that you must not change your name for fraudulent reasons. Here in Quebec, for example, many forms specify “nom à la naissance” (name at birth), which I simply ignore. And women may not use their husband’s name legally. This is 180 degree change from what it was when I moved here, when married women were not permitted to use their maiden names. Whatever isn’t forbidden is compulsory. (Incidentally, they could not sign contracts unless their husband signed giving them permission to sign.)
My wife did this (she’d always gone by her middle name, so she changed her maiden name to her middle name, her middle name to her first name, my last name to her last name and jettisoned her original first name–e.g., went from being called Lori but being Lori Dori Maiden to being Dori Maiden Dorkness). Social Security had no trouble with it at all, but the driver’s license bureau was a real pill, initially telling her she couldn’t do it. She eventually had to get a supervisor involved, at which point there was no problem.
You’re really just talking about the difference between ‘your name’, and what the government, banks, etc. think your name is. Call yourself or your children anything you want, but don’t expect the government or anyone else to cooperate unless you use the English alphabet, and a reasonable number of characters.
I’ve heard of legal name changes denied based on the definition of obscenity. That was a long time ago, I don’t know if anybody has tried to change their name to Fuck Nixon for a long time.
When my daughter was born here in Texas, the only limitation was no numerals.
Her name has an accent and they did indeed put it on the certificate. Other legal documents do not have it (her social security card, for example).
Yes, that’s what the name registration person told me.
(concerning girl names) Yes, but Leslie or Gail are names that look to my untrained eye to be names that historically have been sometimes used for men. I tried to use in my example names that historically have never been used for men.
Yes, I’m Swiss. In Europe, the countries I am familiar with have rules about what you can name your child. e.g. Naming your child with a joke name (like Dumb Ass or Shit Head) would be rejected by the city official. Often times they will be more strict than that. For the purposes of this thread, I’m curious as to how it works in the US.
No, what I am interested in is what state laws typically say. My impression is that state laws don’t specify much of anything, especially as far as length / special characters / number of names, and that the limitation imposed by the limitations of computer systems are turning into de facto laws that people have to obey.