Getting your name right in the US - think for the long term

Student Lounge International Students
1

Happydad just spent the morning on the phone with two more of his financial institutions (yes, these two do happen to have customer service available on Sundays) sorting out his name. He came to the US as a grad student in the early 1980’s with a definite plan to return to his home country, and no desire to live here permanently. He didn’t particularly notice that a shortened version of his name appeared on the US Social Security Card that he was issued in order to work on campus - after all he used that shorter version in most situations. Flash forward more than 30 years, and he’s now a naturalized US citizen with the correct long form of his legal name on his US passport, driver’s license, and Social Security Card, and the short version on many other critical records. He’s working through the list, and hopes to finish correcting everything by the end of this year.

His advice to all of you: Even if you don’t plan to spend much time in the US, if you are issued a SSN for work purposes while a student, do your best to make certain that the spelling, etc. of your legal name is the one that you want to use for the rest of your life here. The record-keeping will be so much easier! You can still use whatever short version you feel like for social purposes.

2

As someone with not only an unusual, but a hyphenated name that also includes an apostrophe – Amen to happmomof1’s post.

PS (It took 2 tries to get my son’s unusual middle name spelled correctly on his birth certificate. Ditto his passport!)

3

My mom ended up spelling my name incorrectly (they had her on some strong meds). So to of the letters are switched yl instead of ly. There’s also an i included before the last letter. Which I think she originally wanted it like that. Anyways, I’ve never used that version of my name. I don’t use the i at all and the yl is switched correctly. I realized it was a bit of a problem when it came to official reports I guess you can say. My mom says it’s mostly correct on my social security card. Made it difficult when I had to contact one of my schools to help unblock me from the application website (dang passwords). I also might have to put my birth certificate name on my diploma which is not good.
Guess I know what I’m asking for Christmas. My name change to the correct spelling.