Birth certificate question

[Anonymous]

If your baby's chosen names included a non-English name, such as a middle name with Japanese or Chinese characters, was this permitted on the birth certificate? Or, only English (Latin alphabet) is permitted?

[Anonymous]

I have no idea but I am also curious to know the answer since our kid's middle name will have to be in my husband's native language.
Now that I think about it, I should go ask his best friend who's from the same country and just had a kid. Her first name is American but middle name is in their native language -- I'll ask how it's spelled on the birth certificate.

[Anonymous]

Hi PP, OP here. If you do find out, please post back ...

[Anonymous]

Call Dept of Vital Statistics to ask if they print characters on birth certificates or only letters.

[Anonymous]

We just spelled out the Chinese middle name in pinyin... Didn't even think to ask about whether they would do characters.

I would imagine that only the Latin alphabet is permitted. Otherwise, I'm sure a lot of Asians would want/have their last names printed as Korean/Japanese/Chinese characters, which most people in the US would then be unable to read.

[Anonymous]

You will have to spell it out phonetically or with an Americanized version of the name. This is very, very common.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, that's what I figured but thanks for confirming (second poster here). Oh well... Here's hoping my MIL picks out something I can easily spell.

[Anonymous]

I asked about accent marks when applying for the birth certificate at the hospital. The lady said they can technically do accent marks, but often they wind up being put in wrong, or having an asterisk next to the name saying there is an accent mark! So, needless to say, we left the accent mark out on the certificate.

[Anonymous]

OP here, yes, thanks for all input on this

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher and have mostly non-native English speaking students. I have to look at their birth ceritifcates for age verification, and many have Asian names, or Spanish names that should have accent marks. I have never seen a MD or DC birth certificate with anything but Latin characters (no accent marks).

[Anonymous]

I can't see how, legally, a U.S. Birth certificate could have any other language or character permitted on it other than English, since that is the U.S. native language, and this is a legal U.S. document that establishes presence and so many other things.

Any other way doesn't make sense to me. What does make sense is translating the name into English, and spelling it out so it can be read in English.

I would assume the same guidelines apply to all other U.S. documentation established from the birth certificate - passports, driver's licenses, social security cards...

[Anonymous]

Actually I think it's a fair question precisely because the US does not have an official language. I wish our technology/infrastructure could handle other alphabets so my husband's and kids' names could be listed both ways on official documents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't see how, legally, a U.S. Birth certificate could have any other language or character permitted on it other than English, since that is the U.S. native language, and this is a legal U.S. document that establishes presence and so many other things.

Any other way doesn't make sense to me. What does make sense is translating the name into English, and spelling it out so it can be read in English.

I would assume the same guidelines apply to all other U.S. documentation established from the birth certificate - passports, driver's licenses, social security cards...

It doesn't really work that way with names. We don't make babies named Pierre or Pedro put Peter on their birth certificates.

[Anonymous]

I'm PP 16:54. And I'm not white or English, so please don't make assumptions. I'm not being snarky. And actually, my sibling's native name is spelled with an accent so I know for a fact they will translate to english and what a U.S. character keyboard can take anyway.

I still feel the same way. The U.S. government managed systems are deep rooted in standards -- a character change or inserting mandarin characters or latin based spellings would be a major system overhaul on many levels that would cost a bunch of money that most governments wont want to invest in.

Even if it English isnt the "official" language of the U.S., it is the NATIVE language, and the primary language. At least for now. Everything else is in fact secondary.

No need to take offense. I'm saying if you say name your baby ????? (Emily in arabic), why would I expect a U.S. english speaking country to allow for characters that majority of government officials will not be able to understand. That doesn't make sense to ME.

I'm not saying the question isn't valid question, but my opinion is what it is. If I were in China, and gave birth to a baby as a citizen there, and wanted an American name they would not type it on the english alphabet. And I don't see why they any country would even invest in a capability to do that.

That is all.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Point proven. Even DCUM programming doesnt allow for Arabic characters to be cut and paste.