Issues With Dropping Middle Name, For Initial, When Passport Renewed ?

[eastbaybob]

US Passport that needs to be renewed this year.  I have a marriage extension on a Non O visa.  When I renew the passport I have been thinking of dropping my middle name for just an initial.  I heard back from the embassy and I have all the documentation they require.  My question is will this cause issues with immigration as everything there has my full middle name?  
 

[Callmeishmael]

I did this accidentally a couple of passports back.  The problem was that my passport name no longer exactly matched my name on my university degree and on other important documents.  I had to get a copy of my Birth Certificate and get a new passport issued with my full name before the TCT would issue me a Teacher's License.

[Paulaew]

Sometimes the best solution to a problem is not to make the problem.

 

Paul Laew

 

[tonray]

Don't screw around with something that will bite you in the 4444 in the future

[ubonjoe]

I would not suggest doing anything that changes my name on my passport.

Are you sure the embassy will accept your application without a middle name. I seem to recall it being a required field on the application form.

[eastbaybob]

22 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

 

Are you sure the embassy will accept you application without a middle name. 

It would just be a middle initial and they will accept the application with proper evidence that I just use an initial in other uses with the government.

 

Thus far, although I’d like to change it, I think it confuse immigration and just cause a bunch of new hassles that I just don’t feel like dealing with.

[stigar]

12 minutes ago, eastbaybob said:

It would just be a middle initial and they will accept the application with proper evidence that I just use an initial in other uses with the government.

 

Thus far, although I’d like to change it, I think it confuse immigration and just cause a bunch of new hassles that I just don’t feel like dealing with.

Follow the rules about PP.In my country we have to fill out the whole name.Why do you want o make problems for urself.?When im in thailand my PP,drivinglicense..my national ID and even my creditcards have my FULLY NAME.

[eastbaybob]

2 hours ago, stigar said:

Why do you want o make problems for urself.?

I don’t want to make a problem for myself, that’s why I asked the question here before doing anything.  If people had stories where everything turned out great when they dropped a middle name I would have done it, but without that I won’t risk the headaches.

[Capella]

Changing your name might cause you problems down the line. Use your preferred name in your everyday life, but leave your legal name as it is.

[SAFETY FIRST]

22 hours ago, eastbaybob said:

I have been thinking of dropping my middle name for just an initial

Go on, tell us. 

 

Why do you want to go to so much trouble. 

 

What name do you have?

[Dante99]

Banking issues?

[CM Dad]

It would most definitely create a myriad of problems.

[CMBob]

I renewed my US passport by mail just last month and I recall there was a series of questions you have to answer first to determine if you can renew the passport that way.....and one of the questions is whether you want a new passport with the same name as your existing passport.  If you answer that question "no", then the site concludes you are not eligible to do it by mail.  I'm guessing there is an alternate way to get it done (an in-person interview?); however, I have to agree with others here that changing your name from the exact name appearing on one's existing passport, driver's license, birth certificate, bank records, vaccine certificate, etc., probably isn't worth the hassle or potential problems unless one needs to do it because of a legal name change.

 

Would note the mail deal (here in Chiangmai you can't do it any other way) is very efficient.  I mailed (DHL) the old passport with paperwork and bank drafts to the Bangkok embassy on a Monday and received the new and old passports back by mail (EMS or some similar service) 12 days later.

Edited January 27, 2022 by CMBob
Added info

[Thingamabob]

I simply cannot understand why you want to do this. Very strange. Don't change anything.

[Iron Tongue]

I agree with everyone, why create potential trouble for yourself?  Putting your full name on a passport application is only a one-time effort.

 

[Paulaew]

The advice to the OP to take the path of least resistance and let it be is practical of course.

 

But there are larger issues here to be discussed, if we are so inclined.

 

We should have the right to choose our own name and identity (and some would argue, gender).

 

Robert Zimmerman, for example, left his midwestern Jewish home and reinvented himself as Bob Dylan with a vagabond backstory. He did later return to his roots, despite a detour into born again Christianity.

 

Thai people seem especially prone to changing their names. They seem to believe that a name change can change adverse life conditions. Finding exactly the right name can be complicated and possibly expensive. It is one of the reasons that the 13 digit ID number assigned to Thai people is so important -- it is the only way to track someone who may change their name multiple times.

 

Paul Laew

 

 

[DJ54]

Bank looked cross eyed because US Cashiers Check from my US had only my initial same a US bank 

account. 

 

Long ago i wire transferred $10k from my US Bank to China bank. Money left my US account but never deposited in my China account. Reason .... they said I spelled my name wrong.. after 50+ years 

I don’t think so .... ended up had to use only First and Last name because name was too long to 

fit in their system... 

[Stocky]

If it ain't broke don't fix it.

[Liverpool Lou]

34 minutes ago, Paulaew said:

We should have the right to choose our own name

We do.  Nothing stops anyone from changing their name to one of their choosing. 

[Paulaew]

10 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

We do.  Nothing stops anyone from changing their name to one of their choosing. 

Quite right, except for the incredible hassle of doing so, as evidenced by the OP who just wanted to change his middle name to an initial.

 

They make it easy for Thai people to change their names, since it's so much part of the culture here. They just have to change their house registration and ID card.

 

Paul Laew

[Liverpool Lou]

23 minutes ago, Paulaew said:

36 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

We do.  Nothing stops anyone from changing their name to one of their choosing. 

Quite right, except for the incredible hassle of doing so, as evidenced by the OP who just wanted to change his middle name to an initial.

He wasn't changing his name officially, which is not incredible hassle, he just wanted to initialise his middle name on his passport.  Doing that isn't the way to change his name officially.

[Captain Monday]

Is there an option to use only middle initial in US passport?

[ubonjoe]

33 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

Is there an option to use only middle initial in US passport?

On the application form the middle name is not marked as a required field. But I assume that is due to some people not having one.

[robsamui]

5 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

I simply cannot understand why you want to do this. Very strange. Don't change anything.

He's American. They seem to have a unique approach when it comes to multiple Christian names and middle initials.

 

Edited January 27, 2022 by robsamui

[SAFETY FIRST]

8 minutes ago, robsamui said:

He's American. They have a unique attitude when it comes to middle names and middle initials.

My mate is American, he has, first, middle and last name also he is a junior (is this only American?)

 

Anyway his Thai daughter now has junior in her name on all her documents, bloody amazing. 

The Thai's don't understand junior/senior.... 

 

Anyone else had this happen? 

[natway09]

My opinion, more trouble than what it is worth

[eastbaybob]

19 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

Is there an option to use only middle initial in US passport?

Yes. You need to apply using a different application, I think DS-11, and you have to have an interview at the embassy.  You also need to bring evidence that you use the initialized name for official ‘business’, which aside from my passport is everything I’ve ever done.

[robsamui]

On 1/27/2022 at 5:27 PM, SAFETY FIRST said:

My mate is American, he has, first, middle and last name also he is a junior (is this only American?)

 

Anyway his Thai daughter now has junior in her name on all her documents, bloody amazing. 

The Thai's don't understand junior/senior.... 

 

Anyone else had this happen? 

I think only Americans have junior/senior in their names - no other nation that I'm aware of does this. Other countries tend to give their new-born an individual name . . . only the USA keeps repeating the same names, over and over, from father to son, for some bizarre reason.

Edited January 31, 2022 by robsamui

[SAFETY FIRST]

17 minutes ago, robsamui said:

I think only Americans have junior/senior in their names - no other nation that I'm aware of does this. Other countries tend to give their new-born an individual name . . . only the USA keeps repeating the same names, over and over, from father to son, for some bizarre reason.

Yeah, strange for those of us that don't understand it 

 

Anyway my mates daughter is now 

Jane Doe Junior

Because Her father

John Doe Junior 

 

 

Holy mackerel 

[OJAS]

On 1/26/2022 at 7:58 AM, Paulaew said:

Sometimes the best solution to a problem is not to make the problem.

 

Paul Laew

 

And I have my parents to thank for that in my case, through their decision not to bestow any middle name on me when I popped out of my mother's womb 70+ years ago!????