What do other cultures do with multiple names? Some have no middle. Some have multiple names. In my case, some institutions had no problem with multiple middle names, and others divided my second middle name and applied it toward my last name. I’m assuming it all depended on their computer system capability at the time it was issued. What a mess this has become.
Many Chinese have 2 middle names in HI. Mostly it’s not an issue and stays in the middle where it belongs. Some systems only accept one middle initial, so that’s all that can be provided.
Some folks in our state have LOTS of middle names and run out of space on many forms.
I have another name-matching issue that I’m wondering if anyone else has had. My mother recently passed away and I had to apply for an EIN for her estate with the IRS. When I did so on the IRS website the only match for my SSN was if I used my maiden name! I officially changed my name with Social Security 28 years ago when I got married. My married name is hyphenated and includes my maiden name. I don’t understand this at all, especially since I have been filing tax returns for the last 28 years under my married (hyphenated) name and the IRS has never complained. I’m not sure what to do, since I don’t really want to call the IRS, and maybe it’s not relevant anyway.
A passport or passport card is accepted as an ID by the TSA, assuming that is what you mean:
https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification
Obviously, for international travel, you typically need a passport at border crossings (passport cards may be accepted in some situations).
Our marriage license is a duplicate and has no signatures. Hope this works when one of us has to present it for SS, RealID, etc.
S2 needs to get a RealID when he comes back for a visit in December. He has sent some credit card bills here as well as his voter registration form so he has recent mail to our address.
You can get a certified copy of your marriage license just like a birth certificate. A lot of people I know had to do that in the adoption process.
I am assuming that if I get a Real Id now, I will still have to renew my driver’s license when it expires. IOW, I can’t take whatever test required, take the new photo etc. now. I don’t suppose i could bundle it into one DMV visit?
I thought the Real ID was a renewal of the drivers license so it would extend the expiration date however many years the renewal cycle is.
Most states allow you to renew a driver’s license and have it extend the 5-10 years that a new license would last, starting the clock again.
I have my maiden name, which I use professionally, on my social security card. My married name is on my license and passport. When I moved to CT many years ago, the DMV put the wrong middle initial on my license— but as it happened to be the first letter of my maiden name, I never bothered about it. Now if I want a real ID, I would have to apply for a name change with the DMV, which potentially could require me to change the name on my social security card. It just seems like it would be easier to carry a passport card. But I keep gritting my teeth thinking about how real id discriminates against women.
I finally got real ID. My old license used just middle initial. Passport and SS used full married name. Lady at DMV just asked if I wanted them to match and I said yes. No big deal but not as much of issue I guess as using maiden name vs married on documents.
We have the option of requesting an enhanced ID for the driver’s license, or keeping it as-is. Far simpler in my case to just keep it as-is. That means DL and Passport will not match exactly. Other than needing to use the passport (or passport card) for TSA checks, are there any other potential problems if the Drivers License doesn’t exactly match Passport? I cannot recall ever being asked for 2 photo ID’s. I’ve been asked for (2) separate ID’s, but in the past bank cards have sufficed as the second.
Our DMV asks for Passport or Birth certificate which made things a lot easier for me because my BC name does not match my other ID. Some years ago, I was flagged about my Social security name not matching the name I was using for all of my other ID, particularly drivers license, tax returns and pay checks, so I went into a SS office and had my name changed there to my married name which I was using on everything else. My BC did not come into the picture because I used the passport and I brought in my marriage certificate. So now all of my ID matches except for the BC which I have kept buried. Hopefully, I never have to track down the legal paper trail to bridge that gap between it and my first passport, govt ID and social security card which is the name I’ve used until I got married when I took my husband’s name.
How are you people filing taxes with the wrong name on the SS card? I know lots of people who have had their taxes rejected because the name is incorrect. It’s usually a case where a name change after marriage or divorce was never corrected with SSA, but others have happened because of misspellings, legal name change.
All of the tax deductions and credits for my daughter were rejected one year because I made a mistake with her SSN on my taxes (put a 4 instead of a 9, back in the days when I did them by hand). I got a notice that her name didn’t match the SSN, and to please send a check for all the credits (child, child care, dependent) I took for her. A nice man fixed it over the phone. Then a year later I get a letter from the state saying my state taxes didn’t match my federal, and could I please send them a check for all the deductions and credits I took for having 2 kids when I clearly only have 1. It took a good 2 years to straighten it all out.
I never had any problems with my maiden name on my SS card and records, and my married name on my paychecks, W2s, tax returns in 5 states and driver’s licenses in the same. Not one bit.
Then after a few years in NY, I got a letter from SSA advising me that my SS records showed a different name than my DMV ( Drivers license) records, and options to reconcile the two. Since I was using my married name on most everything , I simply went to a SS office with marriage certificate, drivers license and passport. They changed SSA records to my married name and that was that.
I have a RealID now—when I renewed my Driver’s license, and it was no big deal that I recall. I vaguely remember having to bring in two proofs of residence, bills mailed to home address. That could be an issue for those who who have everything on line. Car registration and Insurance card would suffice but here in NYC a lot of people don’t own cars. I don’t know what they’d bring if they have everything on line. Maybe verification from bank, and lease? Employer verifying home address?
I decided not to get a RealID and just to travel with my passport after I went to an appointment to renew my DL and get the enhanced and I was told that my marriage certificate was insufficient to prove my name. I practice law under my maiden name, have a hyphenated DL because DMV demanded it when I married in 1992, have a passport in my married last name, etc. I have to renew my passport next year and will just continue to travel with it.