Posted by
Burgundy
20 yrs ago
Is it legal/practical to give a kid both a fully Chinese name (Lau Wun Ching Charlotte or whatever) for use in local schools and on the HK ID card plus a fully European name (Elizabeth Johnson) or whatever for use in European schools on the European passport?
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We used both English and chinese name for my daughter on her birth certificate.
eg Charlotte Chan Tai Man or Chan Tai Man Charlotte. When she is back in the UK, she is simply called Charlotte Chan.
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Sorry, I wasn't clear in the original post (now amended)... I realise kids can have both Chinese and English GIVEN names (what the British called "Christian names" in the pre-PC days). But I'm thinking more about FAMILY names.
In other words, can she be just Charlotte Johnson in Combe Bassett village school and on her British passport and and Lau Wun Ching Charlotte in Tin Shui Wai school and on her HKID card?
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My friend is Karen Rachel Cooper on her British passport, driving license and on her HKID card but in addition she also has a Chinese name on her HKID card which is 古嘉欣 with 古 being a phonetic translation of the first syllabul Coo in Cooper and the other 2 characters are given names.
Hope that helps.
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AFAIK, her Hong Kong birth certificate will be used as the basis for her passport applications.
However, thinking out loud, if you give her an Anglo name first on the birth certiciate and then apply for a UK passport based on that, you can always go back to the birth registry in HK and change her name to a proper Chinese name and then apply for a HKID based on the latter.
At some point though (when she renews her documents), she will have to reconcile her different aliases with the proper authorities.
FWIW, I think it will cause more problems for your child to have two distinctly different names.
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ness
20 yrs ago
Schools (international) here and in the UK are used to children having different names. The child can be officially registered at the school under the name on the birth cerificate and then they usually have a section on enrollment paperwork which asks what the name they are to be known by at school. This is used for children who have long first names that are shortened to nicknames, or whose parents named them one thing but call them something else, children whose parents are not married but who will go by the fathers name at school or vice versa, kids from divorces, double barrell surnames and children who span two cultures who have both chinese names and english names. Every now and then I will call a roll and noone will answer (I am a supply teacher) because the child will be listed under a name that absolutely is never used at school. But usually they schools are very good at adapting. I am sure you can sort out different passports for the two different countries by doinga change of name form in Britain before applying for her first passport. From then on she just keeps both countries/documents seperate.
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Exactly. But sadly the actions of "a few bigots" can have a disproportionate influence on our lives...
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mlkh
20 yrs ago
My name is Mei-ling Kathleen, with my father's surname (he's the white one).
On my ID card is both that name and my name in Chinese.
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