I have the opportunity to get a free name change and I’m wondering what my limits are. I know that supposedly, numerals are not allowed, but what about non western characters?
Can I legally change my middle name so that it’s spelled out in Traditional Chinese, like Metro 文傑 Gnome?
Name changes are handled on local/state levels, it would probably vary quite a bit. There may be different restrictions on federal documents, like a passport.
Maybe, if you can find a local Judge who will approve this (name changes are done in local courts).
But then that is just the beginning of your problems. Now you have to fight with the state Drivers License department, the local city property tax department, the water billing department, and just about every other bureaucracy in local government, and the local monopoly utility companies. And fighting bureaucracies can be much harder than dealing with a Judge in Court – the Judge has rules to follow, bureaucracies make rules up as they go along.
In fact, you might not even be able to get this in front of a Judge at all – the clerk of court will tell you that those characters can’t be entered in their computer system that prints the documents for the Judge.
I know a Yugoslav who became naturalized in the 70s. His first name was Andrej, no middle name and he wanted to change it to Andre J (just the initial) at naturalization since they gave an option of a name change. They wouldn’t permit that. When he mentioned Harry S Truman, they were unmoved, although it did result in the citizenship quiz being waived. The basis on which they refused a single letter is unclear to me. Would they have rejected U Nu?
I have a friend who’s middle name given at birth is ‘9’ and her brother’s is ‘7’. This was done in Alaska in the 60’s and I don’t know that either of them have had any significant problems.
Funnily enough i did change my middle initial to the letter J just this year.
In Australia, for the record.